A new Survey Center poll shows a stark partisan divide among American women over whether men are responsible for the challenges women face in society, with the gap widest among the youngest respondents.
Among Democrat women ages 18 to 29, 66 percent said the challenges women face in American society are “in a great deal due to the behavior or actions of men.” Only 18 percent of Republican women in the same age bracket agreed.
The pattern held, though somewhat less pronounced, across other age groups. Fifty-four percent of Democrat women ages 30 to 49 said men are largely to blame for women’s challenges, compared with 23 percent of Republican women in that range. Among women ages 50 to 64, 47 percent of Democrats agreed, as did 48 percent of Democrat women 65 and older. In both older brackets, Republican women agreed at notably lower rates than their Democrat counterparts.
The survey also asked men whether they believed women were to blame for the problems men face. Only 16 percent of men overall agreed. Republican men were somewhat more likely than Democrat men to hold that view, but even among Republican men, only 26 percent blamed women for men’s challenges.
A Separate Look at Career and Family Choices
The poll’s findings arrive alongside results from an August Economist/YouGov survey that examined how Americans view family and career roles. That survey asked respondents: “If either option were available, would you pursue a career outside the home or stay home to care for your family?”
Across all respondents, 47 percent said they would choose a career outside the home, while 37 percent said they would choose to stay home and care for their family.
Among women specifically, the answer was split evenly: 43 percent said they would pursue a career outside the home, and 43 percent said they would stay home to care for their family. Fourteen percent of women said they were unsure.
Within that same survey, a majority of Democrat women, 52 percent, said they would choose a career outside the home over staying home with their family.
