Gender and the Generations: You Haven’t Come a Long Way Yet, Baby

• In Event: Generational Perspectives on American Politics: Applications and Methods

Abstract

Both 1992 and 2018 were billed as the “Year of the Woman.” Yet, women’s representation in elected political office has barely budged from around 25% of seats nationwide. While the reasons why fewer women run for office are well understood, whether or not voters will vote for women leaders and why has been less studied. This is especially important when considering that while significant societal change has taken place regarding views of women in the last 100 years, actual voters tend to come from times when women were expected to stay home and raise families. Could this be part of the puzzle of women’s lower representation?
Using five years of data from the Meredith Poll, we find that generational views of women’s role in politics and women as political leaders vary significantly. Older generations are less likely to intend to vote for female candidates, less likely to be in favor of women running for office at all, and less likely to believe that any changes need to be made in the United States to increase gender equality. Additionally, measures that have been considered to increase women’s representation in office, like mandated gender equality on state appointed boards and commissions, are unpopular with older Americans. We argue that these starkly different generational attitudes combined with generational voting patterns are an important piece of the answer as to why women still struggle to achieve gender parity in American politics.

Author

• Whitney Ross Manzo, Meredith College