Young Republicans' Attitudes Towards Women Revealed

Young Republicans are far more likely to agree with gender stereotypes and believe that women are promiscuous and emotional, and should prioritize having children over having a career, according to recent polling from Harvard University.

The annual Harvard Youth Poll, run by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard's Kennedy School, found stark differences between how young Republicans and young Democrats view women and their role in society.

The polling shows that 46 percent of young Republicans agreed with the statement "women are too promiscuous these days," compared with just 11 percent of young Democrats, according to a breakdown by John Della Volpe, the director of polling at the Harvard Institute.

Furthermore, 33 percent of young Republican respondents agreed that "women's emotions make it more challenging to lead effectively" and 26 percent agreed that "women should prioritize having children over joining the workforce—compared with just 16 percent and 12 percent of young Democrats, respectively.

The polling found that political affiliation was the biggest predictor of young people's views on gender norms, more so than gender.

In response to the question about promiscuity, 46 percent of young Republican men agreed as did 47 percent of young Republican women.

By comparison, only 18 percent of young Democratic men agreed, along with 11 percent of young Democratic women.

The poll of 2,010 18-to-29-year-olds was organized with undergraduate students from the Harvard Public Opinion Project (HPOP) and supervised by John Della Volpe, Director of Polling, between March 14 and 21, 2024. The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 3.02%.

The new polling comes amid growing fears among the Republican party that abortion rights could become a political liability for them ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, removing the federal right to abortion, several Republican states enacted strict abortion policies, with some banning it entirely.

The new policies have led to a deluge of stories about women being put in life-threatening situations after not being able to receive proper abortion care.

Polling has shown that abortion is an important issue for women voters—a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal found that abortion was the number one issue for 39 percent of suburban women in swing states.

Abortion has already proved to be an electoral headache for Republicans, with the party's underwhelming performance in the November 2022 midterm elections widely linked to their stance on the issue.

Even former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, has blamed the Republicans' poor midterm performance on their handling of the "abortion issue."

Trump has said that he's proud that the Supreme Court justices he nominated played a role in overturning Roe v. Wade.

However, he has avoided going as far as saying there should be a nationwide ban on abortion—which has sparked backlash from some conservatives—and has said he believes the decisions should be left to individual states.

Most polls show President Joe Biden and Trump to be neck-and-neck. However, Trump trails Biden in polls of women voters. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed that Biden had support from 58 percent of women voters, while Trump had support from 36 percent.

Meanwhile, Trump tends to poll better among men voters than Biden.

However, as Harvard polling director Della Volpe notes in his analysis of the new poll: "Biden's gender gap is serious but addressable. There's undoubtedly a hardening of MAGA values on the right and questioning about priorities—but I don't see young men rejecting many of the values and policies Democrats stand for today."

"This is an information and branding problem; and while this is a challenge for 2024—it's not a full-on values problem, which is what the GOP has with women."