US voters say they’re ready for a female president – ​​but opposition to Harris remains to be marked by sexist views

Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race on July 21, 2024, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris because the Democratic presidential candidate. Harris' campaign has generated great enthusiasm and a focus. She quickly became the official Democratic presidential candidate and equaled Donald Trump's lead over Biden in National team And Swing state Opinion poll.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, have also Tens of 1000’s of supporters to her recent rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada.

While things could change dramatically in the following two months, there may be an actual possibility that the United States will finally elect its first female president.

But a poll we conducted in August 2024, after Harris was expected to be named the Democratic nominee, found that sexism remains to be a strong force in American politics.

Hope and alter?

Yes, the scars of the 2016 election campaign – through which sexism played a key role within the election of the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's defeat by Trump – are still fresh for the Democrats. But many hope The America has modified and ladies in leadership positions are increasingly accepted.

This argument suggests that Harris' gender is not going to be a major obstacle for voters.

Superficially, Current nationwide representative survey of 1,000 American adults support this, with 51% of Americans agreeing with the statement, “America is ready for its first African-American president.” Only 23% of Americans disagreed.

Nevertheless, some Republicans appear to imagine they’ll win by Making gender a difficulty within the election campaign. This is obvious within the sexist rhetoric that Trump and other Republicans use when talking about Harris.

Trump, the has a story making sexist remarks, claimed foreign leaders would Harris as a “toy”, them as unintelligentand is now Comment on their appearance. Both The Associated Press And The New York Times have reported – based on unnamed sources – that Trump also called Harris a “bitch” in private conversations, although Trump’s spokesman denied that he used that term.

In a similarly sexist manner, Trump’s allies have tried to make Harris' past amorous affairs into campaign issues, with a conservative commentator on Fox Business News crudely describing Harris as “Original Hawk Tuah Girls,” an obscene sexual innuendo.

Will such attempts to take advantage of sexism as a campaign strategy backfire? Or is it still not possible, in any case these years, for a girl to beat sexist stereotypes and win the very best office within the United States?

Understanding the meaning of sexism

We are Political scientist who study the role of identity in American politics and who Conduct surveys that examine Americans' views on gender and the extent of sexism that also permeates the country.

We conducted two national polls this yr—one in January 2024, when Biden was still within the race, and the opposite in August 2024, after Harris became the Democratic nominee. For each poll, we surveyed 1,000 American adults ages 18 and older, asking them about their thoughts on the election, their political opinions, and their attitudes toward various social groups.

Given the change at the highest of the Democratic ticket, we are able to higher assess the impact of sexism on voting within the presidential election by comparing the ends in January, when there have been two male candidates, with those in August, when Harris entered the race.

In each surveys, we first asked respondents which candidate they’d vote for if presidential elections were held today.

To measure sexism, we asked respondents whether or not they agreed or disagreed with a series of three statements expressing prejudice, resentment, and hostility toward women, or what political scientists call “hostile sexism.” The statements in the “hostile sexism” battery are: “Women try to achieve power by asserting control over men”; “Women are too easily offended”; and “Women exaggerate after they have problems at work.” Stronger agreement with these statements indicates more sexist views.

We also measured respondents’ demographics (including age, gender, race, education, and income), their political attitudes and identities, and their racial views.

Sexism played a task even when Biden was within the race

Partly resulting from Trump's sexist rhetoric during his election campaigns and his presidency. sexist attitudes have turn into closely linked with who individuals support as presidentOn average, more sexist people tended to Republican candidates within the last elections.

For example, even in our January poll, when Biden was the Democratic nominee, sexism was strongly correlated with support for Trump. When we examined a head-to-head matchup between Biden and Trump, the more respondents agreed with statements about hostile sexism, the more likely they were to prefer Trump to Biden.

Of those that most strongly disagreed with statements measuring hostile sexism, 73 percent supported Biden, while about two-thirds of those that scored highest on the sexism scale supported Trump.

Taking under consideration other aspects that influence support for Biden—partisanship, ideology, racial attitudes, education, economic views, and so forth—we found that those with the least sexist views had an 83 percent probability of supporting Biden, while those with probably the most sexist views were 17 percent prone to accomplish that.

Sexism is more vital for Harris

If sexism has weakened individual support for Biden's candidacy, does that mean Harris won't face additional disadvantages in the shape of lost support for her candidacy? Hardly.

Hostile sexism, as we measured it, is costing Harris votes.

While sexism played a task in January, it was much more outstanding in August after Harris took over the Democratic ticket.

In a direct comparison between Harris and Trump, 89 percent of those in the underside third of the sexism scale—those that most disagree with statements measuring hostile sexism—support Harris, in comparison with 11 percent for Trump. On the opposite hand, only 18 percent of those that rating highest on sexism support Harris, in comparison with 82 percent for Trump.

When we have in mind other considerations that influence whether individuals prefer Harris or Trump, our results are much more striking. The least sexist respondents are 92% prone to say they plan to vote for Harris, but probably the most sexist respondents are only 4% prone to say they support her.

This implies that while sexist attitudes influenced individuals' preferences for the president when Biden was the Democratic presidential nominee, they’ve a good greater influence now that Harris is the Democratic nominee.

Without sexism

Harris appears to be barely ahead of Trump within the polls. Why should we care in regards to the influence of hostile sexism on the election?

To answer this query, we imagine a world through which hostile sexism doesn’t affect attitudes toward female presidential candidates. Our results suggest that Harris' lead over Trump could also be larger in such a world. Simply put, hostile sexism contributes to creating the election closer than it otherwise could be.

sexism has long played a strong role in influencing the Americans Voting behavior and attitudes towards political issuesThis is particularly true today given the high political importance of gender-related issues equivalent to abortion, contraception and LGBTQ+ rights.

Our evaluation shows that folks with negative attitudes toward women are much less prone to support Harris as a presidential candidate. Whether Harris' campaign can successfully take care of this reality stays to be seen.