College-educated men have flocked to the GOP in recent years, leaving the Democratic Party more feminine than ever.
SO WHAT
Is U.S. politics becoming a battle of the sexes?
THE NUMBERS
Since 2018, male college graduates have shifted to the GOP by a whopping 26 points, while women with college degrees now lean even further Democrat, according to an MSNBC analysis based on NBC News polling data from January to March.
The findings confirmed longstanding trend referenced in the mainstream press as early as 1981, when the Washington Post noted the existence of an electoral “gender gap.”
- A 2007 Gallup poll found increased support among women was key to the initial success Hillary Clinton enjoyed in the 2008 Democratic primary race.
- Across all age groups and demographic segments, women are much more likely to identify as Democrats, a 2009 Gallup analysis found.
- According to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, women have for at least two decades been “significantly more likely than men to associate with the Democratic Party.”
THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES
While class is the preferred lens through which the Trump-era political realignment is viewed, it may be worth considering the role gender is playing in shifting party loyalties.
A Leger/The Atlantic survey last year found a stark gender disparity in attitudes about cultural issues commonly associated with the left.
- Male respondents were far more likely to say political correctness and “cancel culture” are a problem in modern American society.
- “Things that we talk about as involving ‘young people,’ ‘college students,’ and ‘liberals’ are often gendered issues,” political scientist Richard Hanania wrote in a February analysis of the decline of free speech norms.