婚姻状况影响美国女性投票

    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 aggregated¹ USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Polls. In contrast, the famous "gender² 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 bent³ 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 tenure⁴, 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.
    Analysts⁵ 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 Amendment⁶ 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 Democrats⁷, 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 eligible⁸ 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。

1 aggregated   

a.聚合的，合计的

参考例句：

• He aggregated her to a political party. 他吸收她参加一政党。
• The audiences aggregated a million people. 观众总数达100万人。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

4 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

5 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

6 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。