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The Spouse in the House: What Explains the Marriage Gap in Canada?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2005

J. Matthew Wilson  and
Michael Lusztig
J. Matthew Wilson
Affiliation:
Southern Methodist University
Michael Lusztig
Affiliation:
Southern Methodist University
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Abstract

Abstract. A literature has emerged in American voting studies noting a “marriage gap”—the propensity for married voters to support the Republican party. Using Canadian Election Study data, we establish the existence of a significant marriage gap in Canada. We also seek to determine if the marriage gap is driven by socio-demographic factors or attitudinal ones. We find that while socio-demographic factors contribute to the marriage gap, they explain relatively little variance. In probing the attitudinal basis of the marriage gap further, we find that married Canadians differ from the unwed very strongly on issues of moral traditionalism, but much less so on other issues that measure generalized conservatism.

Résumé. Des travaux sont apparus dans les études américaines sur le vote remarquant l'existence d'un “écart mariage” (marriage gap) – la tendance des électeurs mariés à soutenir le parti républicain. Utilisant des données sur les élections nationales canadiennes, nous établissons l'existence d'un écart significatif au Canada. Nous cherchons aussi à déterminer si ce phénomène est poussé par les facteurs socio-démographiques ou les facteurs d'attitude. Nous constatons que bien que les facteurs socio-démographiques contribuent à cet écart, ils n'expliquent que relativement peu de variation. En recherchant davantage la base attitudinale, nous constatons que les canadiens mariés diffèrent très fortement de ceux qui ne sont pas mariés sur les questions de traditionalisme moral, mais cependant beaucoup moins sur les questions de conservatisme géneral.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , December 2004 , pp. 979 - 995
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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