While non-white women demonstrate a consistent attachment to the Democratic Party and liberal values, a majority of white women identify as Republican and support conservative politicians and policies. This has led some social scientists to claim that white women are prioritizing their high-status racial identity over their low-status gender identity. However, I argue that such a claim falsely assumes that all white women share gender-based interests, conceptualizations of their gender identity, and a perception of women’s position in the social hierarchy. I descriptively and experimentally examine divergence in white women’s gender concepts and perceived gender positionality in a two-wave panel study. I hope to demonstrate that female identity is an important factor in explaining white women’s political heterogeneity.
