The gender divide in American politics is widening, according to an exclusive poll for Newsweek that found men are increasingly embracing a more conservative ideology while women are leaning towards a liberal one.
The poll, conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies on behalf of Newsweek between March 23 and 24, showed that a majority of Americans—57 percent—have changed their political ideology in the past five years, with 23 percent of them becoming more conservative and 17 percent turning more liberal.
More men (26 percent) have become more conservative than women (19 percent), while slightly more women (18 percent) have become more liberal than men (17 percent). The poll is the result of interviews with 1,500 eligible voters in the country.
“It has always been the case that men, on average, vote more conservatively than women,” Elizabeth Matthew, Visiting Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum and a Young Voices contributor, told Newsweek.
“What seems to be changing is the size of the divide, and the shift toward favoring the GOP,” she continued. “In a February 2024 NBC News poll, [Joe] Biden was leading by 10 points among women while [Donald] Trump was ahead by 22 points among men. In 1988, by contrast, both women and men favored the winning candidate, Republican George H.W. Bush; women favored him by 4 points and men by 12, yielding an 8-point gender gap.”
The gender gap in U.S. politics is particularly evident in the younger generations. “Since 2018, Gen Z women have become significantly more liberal, while Gen Z men have become somewhat more conservative,” Matthew said.
According to the latest Gallup data, women aged 18 to 29 are now 15 percentage points more liberal than men their same age—40 percent of women v. 25 percent of men. Fewer men in each age group currently identify as liberal than do their female counterparts.
Newsweek‘s poll shows that 70 percent of Gen Zers changed their political ideology in the past five years, against 63 percent of millennials, 50 percent of Gen Xers and 47 percent of baby boomers and members of the Silent Generation.
“We’re seeing a shift in religiosity, with young women today being less religious than young men, and when it comes to LGBTQ+ identity, with three in 10 young women now identifying as something other than heterosexual, roughly twice the number of young men,” Dan Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Li…..
