Gender Attitudes and American Public Opinion in the Trump Era
Dynamics of American Democracy: Partisan Polarization, Political Competition, and Government Performance. Eric Patashnik and Wendy Schiller (eds.). Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, Forthcoming
20 Pages Posted: 2 Apr 2020
Date Written: March 9, 2020
Abstract
We document the heightened salience of gender attitudes to political views and choices in the Trump era. In particular, we show that beliefs about the harassment of and discrimination toward women were more strongly related to: voting behavior in the 2016 and 2018 elections compared to other recent elections; views of Trump in 2018 compared to 2016; and support for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh compared to support for the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch. We also find ongoing partisan polarization on several measure of gender attitudes, which suggests an alignment that could persist even after the Trump presidency.
Keywords: gender, sexism, public opinion, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, voting behavior, election, Brett Kavanaugh
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