in the 2016 election, Donald "I Grab Women by the Pussy" Trump got more votes among white women than Hillary "Champion of Women's Rights" Clinton. Clinton did not win the demographic of people who look like her.
in 2020, white women similarly preferred Trump over Biden.
what is going on? how was this rational voting behavior? at first glance, it would seem that white women, who also care about their daughters and the world they will grow up in, would be obviously and significantly negatively impacted by voting to empower the culture embodied by Trump.
possible explanation: a woman can get defense from a sexist attack from two sources: the government or a personal network. (both sources primarily work through the threat of retaliation/retribution/punishment, not its execution.) the white women who preferred Trump have more faith in their personal network so prefer to elect a government which will not get in the way of it. for example, if the attacker is black, a white woman prefers a government that does not quibble over Black Lives Matter and instead allows her lynch mob to go after the black attacker.
why does the above argument not apply to college-educated white women (among whom Trump lost)? privilege provides structural barriers to thwart sexist attackers enough so as not to need a personal network of defenders so much, so social justice and other concerns can have greater priority in voting preference. are structural barriers synonymous with government? government protecting the privileged is not surprising.
why did non-white women vote against Trump? this seems straightforward to explain as choosing the lesser of evils: the racism of Republicans all around causes more harm than Democrats' big government getting in the way of personal safety.
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