>and, at that point, the gender gap wasn't about women becoming more
>conservative, but about men becoming more conservative.
Hard to say - Reagan polarized the issues of war and welfare pretty severely.
Judging just on presidential votes, it looks like things went both ways:
1972 1976 1980
----------------- ----------------- ----------------
Nixon McG Carter Ford Reagan Carter men 62 36 50 48 55 36 women 61 37 50 48 47 45
If you just look at the shift from 76-80, it does look like men did most of the changing, but if you go back to '72, the 14-point dropoff for women between Nixon & Reagan is pretty sharp - twice as big as the male.
Still, there's not much doubt that lots of men thought Carter was a pussy. As Joel Kovel says, the Reps are the party of the stern father, and the Dems, as much as they try, just can't match that.
Doug