This 2012 presidential election and other recent elections, all show that married women tend to vote Republican while single women tend to vote Democrat.  Why this occurs is a mystery to many including myself, but in the interest of science, I shall attempt my own explanation without offending too many women.

1. Women who are single are less apt to be economically stable and thus vote for the politician who promises a more expanded taxpayer paid safety net.  Voting for the candidate that may improve the economy in general is less important, as macro economics is a difficult topic to understand and see how it applies directly to you.  Just after the election I was having a conversation with a female black coworker and explained my thought that some women like the option to “feed off the nipple of government.”  It didn’t go over too well with her but I think it bears some truth for some, men included.
2. Single women may have more concerns about unwanted pregnancy and so vote for people who will not place any, or few, restrictions on abortion.  That has typically been the Democrats even though abortion and contraceptives have not really been on the agenda of the Republicans despite all the advertisements to the contrary.
3. Some married women are persuaded by their husbands to support the GOP instead of the Democrats.  Since men tend to vote Republican, this cannot be ruled out.  Often men follow politics much more closely than women, or at least on topics different then women may automatically think about, and will sway the vote of the wife.
4. Men tend to marry women who think somewhat similar to how they think.  Not many guys would ask or maybe even care how a woman thinks ideologically before dating, but they would be more naturally attracted on a long term basis to those who think similar.
5. Married women tend to be more religious and the majority of self described Christians vote Republican.
6. Single women might be located more heavily in urban areas where people do not place as high a priority on being independent of taxpayer paid services.  Typically rural people are very self sufficient because they have to be or want to be, and city dwellers rely much more on taxpayer services of various types.  Just look at a county map of red and blue across the country and you will see that Democrats, on the presidential level, typically only win in heavy urban areas.

There are other reasons perhaps but those are the six main ones that I can think of at this moment to explain the single versus married woman vote.  Now how to change that to favor Republicans is a difficult question.  We could go back to only male landowners voting but even suggesting such requires me to start ducking from numerous objects flung my way from my sweet harmless wife, so I rule that option out. 

If you truly think abortion at any stage should be illegal if a woman is raped, just don’t even run for office or talk about your ideas.  Life begins at conception, I get that.  But as a matter of law and defining criminal acts, someone who has an abortion shortly after getting pregnant being arrested and taken to court just seems unjust, regardless of under what circumstances she became pregnant.  Now as a matter of criminal law, having an abortion at let’s say three months after being pregnant is an entirely different matter and even more so just weeks before the due date.  Abortion is also not an issue for the federal government.  States have the responsibility for laws concerning life.  Government equals force and what is the right thing to do and what is the legal thing to do should not always be the same.

Conduct education campaigns specifically targeting economic issues and explain in a non-partisan way, how the market works and how regulations and taxes have effects beyond that which appear at the surface.  It is hard to know how many people pay attention to such things but it must be attempted.  Too often charges are thrown around in a campaign, but when voters do not understand issues, they are persuaded by lies and sound bytes.