It has long been the case that American women are generally more liberal than American men. But among young Americans, this gender gap has widened into an enormous rift: According to recent Gallup polling, there is a 30-point differencebetween the number of women age 18–30 who self-identify as liberal and the number of men in that demographic who do the same.
That’s largely because young women have gotten much more liberal, while young men have stayed ideologically more consistent—or, according to other analyses, become more conservative and anti-feminist. (Of course, not every person identifies as a man or woman. But gender roles still play a big part in shaping our lives and politics, and in the context of this column, I am focusing mostly on the vast majority of Americans who identify as one or the other.) It’s not happening just here either; the political divide between the sexes is a trend that researchers are observing in some other countries too.
Well when who you are is being directly attacked, of course it’s going to radicalize you (I’m not using that word in a negative manner either). But look at at what is happening around reproductive rights from abortion, to birth control, to maternity leave, etc. These affect a core of a person and you have a large group of people saying “we want to control this for you”.
My exact first thought. After decades of (uneven) improvement, women’s rights are globally taking a massive hit. No wonder women are becoming more left leaning.