Election 2016 is breaking down along deep gender divides. We're into unprecedented territory here with a divisive split among voters based on sex.  An analysis by Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight shows that if only women voted, Clinton would beat Trump in the Electoral College 458 to 80. Silver’s analysis also showed that if only men voted, Trump would carry the day with 350 votes to Clinton's 188. Trump’s dominating physical stance at the debate, following his lewd comments in 2005 about sexually assaulting women has only intensified the divide..  

We're joined by Jim's Boston Public Radio co-host Margery Eagan (@margeryeagan), and Nicco Mele (@nicco) who is the director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Eagan explains that Trump might appeal to a voter group that feels threatened by minorities and women. "I think a lot of people think he's a strong man. They love all this kind of stuff. I mean, I am really proud of my sex. Let me say. So this to me is like a mode of, 'We have had enough. We're not going to take it anymore'..." Eagan argues that after years of sexist and abusive men, the idea of rape culture is finally being accepted in the mainstream, "It's kind of like enough already!"

Mele agrees with Eagan that there may be something to the male divide being perpetuated by feeling threatened. "I also think a lot of it's about an age divide." He explains, "Men under 40 are very offended by Trump's remarks. And men over 40 think that the locker room is a legitimate excuse."

In terms of women voters Mele says, "Even in the first debate you saw Trump mansplaining to Hillary." He says many women are sick of men trying to explain something to them, when women know what they're talking about. "She has decades of experience... I think there is a shared experience here that's reaching women." 

Eagan says, "Maybe women can see [Trump] as unhinged and deranged." She said that obviously some women love Trump, but she doesn't understand it. 

Many voters in this election are voting out of animus for the other candidate, rather than approval of their own. Mele thinks, "In many ways we have two very weak candidates representing the fragile nature of our political system."