As we gear up to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment in 2020 and see a record number of women running for president, this feels like a good time to remind everyone: Women voters won’t support a woman candidate just because she’s a woman. Research from the Women & Politics Institute at American University finds that the gender of the candidate is not the top priority for women voters.   

Instead, party and values, matter most when evaluating candidates.  

This is in sync with Barbara Lee Family Foundation research, which has shown time and again that women are not a monolithic voting bloc – partisanship and ideology outweigh gender when voters choose candidates. Because every woman brings the whole of her experiences to the voting booth, every woman has a unique combination of factors that influence her vote.  

We wouldn’t expect all men to vote the same way – why would we expect all women to do so?