Women, which one to choose? 
 
Want to know which candidate a woman is likely to support for president?

Look at her ring finger.

It may sound like the start of a joke, but the fact is most married women say they'll vote for US President Bush. By nearly 2-to-1, unmarried women say they support John Kerry.

The "marriage gap" - the difference in the vote between married and unmarried women - is an astonishing 38 percentage points, according to aggregated USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Polls. In contrast, the famous "gender gap," the difference in the vote between men and women, is just 11 points.

Ginny Savopoulos thinks she understands why the marriage gap exists.

"I registered Republican when I got married," she says as she walks through Rodney Square in the center of town here. That reflected her husband's political bent and her own sense of economic security. "After I was divorced, I was thinking more about, 'What's out there for me as a single woman?' "

During Bush's tenure, she struggled to find comparable work as a paralegal after she was laid off in 2002, and she's been dismayed by the costs of the Iraq war. She is still registered as a Republican, but she plans to vote for Kerry.

Analysts say the marriage gap is grounded in the different daily lives and cultural outlooks that many married and unmarried women have. Eighty-four years after women won the right to vote - the 19th Amendment took effect on this day in 1920 - that electoral divide is shaping important battlegrounds:

Republicans are targeting married women who work outside the home. They reliably vote but sometimes support Democrats, sometimes Republicans. Bush strategist Matthew Dowd calls them a key "persuadable group." Married women who don't work outside the home are solidly Republican - a "turnout group."

The president's support for more "flex-time" arrangements is designed to appeal to married women in the workplace, who often feel less pressure for extra pay than they do for extra time with their families. Laura Bush's speech at the Republican National Convention next Tuesday anchors an evening schedule aimed at female voters.

Democrats for the first time are making a concerted effort to persuade single women, most of whom work, to register and go to the polls. The overwhelming majority of never-married, divorced and widowed women already support Kerry, but they have been one of the demographic groups least likely to vote. In 2000, 22 million unmarried women who were eligible to vote didn't do so.  

(Agencies)
 你想知道一个女人可能会支持哪位总统候选人吗？

那就看看她的无名指吧。

这听起来像一个笑话的开头，但是事实上大多数已婚女性表示她们会投美国总统布什的票。而未婚女性中支持约翰·克里和布什的比例接近2：1。

今日美国、CNN和盖洛普进行的联合民意调查显示，已婚和未婚女性在投票上的“婚姻差异”达到了惊人的38%，与之形成对比的是，著名的“性别差异”，也就是男性和女性投票时的差异却只有11%。

金尼·斯瓦波罗斯认为她理解“婚姻差异”存在的原因。

“结婚后，我投共和党的票。”当她走过市中心的罗德尼广场时说。这反映了他丈夫的政治倾向和她自己的经济安全感。“而我离婚后，我会更多地考虑‘作为一个单身女性，等待我的将是什么。’”

布什任职期间，她失业了。2002年失业后，她努去寻找类似于律师助理的工作，她也因伊拉克战争花费的代价而感到沮丧。虽然她还是登记为共和党人，但是她准备投克里的票。

分析家指出，“婚姻差异”是由许多已婚和未婚女性不同的日常生活和文化观念造成的。1920年的今天，随着宪法第十九条修正案正式生效，妇女赢得了选举权。84年后，选民们不同的倾向正在形成政治斗争的重要战场。

共和党人争取选票的对象是那些外出工作的已婚女性。她们一定会投票，但有时支持民主党，有时支持共和党。布什竞选班子战略家马修·多德把她们称为关键的“可以说服的选民”。并未外出工作的已婚女性是共和党的“铁杆支持者”，这是一个庞大的群体。

总统对增加“弹性工作时间”的安排表示支持，旨在吸引已婚的职业女性，她们经常感到想要和家人多待一会比获得奖金还难。下周二，劳拉·布什将在共和党全国代表大会上发表演讲，其中还安排了一个旨在争取女性选民的晚会。

民主党人也首次协力游说单身女性（大多数为职业女性）去登记投票。绝大多数未婚、离异和寡居的女性都已表示支持克里。但是他们是被统计人群中最可能不去投票的一部分。2000年，有2200万具有资格投票的未婚女性没有参加投票。

（中国日报网站译）