Soccer mom

Soccer moms (usually plural) is a term which is used in United States political discourse in reference to college-educated, upper middle-class, suburban, predominantly white women with school-age children who tend to vote for the US Democratic Party.

The term was thought to have been coined by a Denver, Colorado woman running for city council. When asked for her credentials, she replied, "soccer mom." It came into widespread use in the 1990s, notably during the 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, where soccer moms were considered an important constituency for the Clinton/Gore team.

The women in this demographic are known as such because they are associated with driving their children to soccer games, considered a more genteel competitive sport than American football, which is more popular in mainstream American culture.

Other attributes accredited to soccer moms in American mass media and popular culture include:

• a preference for driving a minivan, rather than the more "macho" SUV,

• a car with a "Darwin fish" bumpersticker, indicating an explicit rejection of creationism and the Christian fundamentalism popular in more conservative parts of the US.

• campaigning against obscenities in rock, rap and other kinds of popular music.