As I indicated at the end of my last blog, I’ve been fearful that the supremely ugly and misogynist tone of the current campaign might discourage women from future political engagement.  I should not have worried!  By an overwhelming majority, Trinity Women say, Bring It!!  So do Trinity Men!  We agree overwhelmingly on these points (the percentages are of those responding to the survey, click on this link to see the entire survey Trinity Straw Poll On Gender Factors in 2016 Election).  Below are some excerpts from the survey sorted by the respondents’ gender, and then among women respondents by age groups.  The survey has a lot of interesting material that is not easily summarized here, so at the bottom of this blog I’ve included links to the results sorted in different ways.

• 94% of Trinity Women and 92% of Trinity Men answering the survey agreed with the statement, “I hope that more women will run for president in the future.”  This result is shown in the graphic above.
  • Among Trinity Women only, sorted by age, 100% of those 25 years of age or younger say they hope more women will run for president in the future, but the next age groups are not quite as sure, with only 91% of the 26-50 age group agreeing, and 96% of the over-50 crowd.

• 63% of Trinity Women and 62% of Trinity Men disagree with the statement, “The harshness of the campaign will discourage other women from running for office.” This result is shown above.
  • Shown in the graphic below, among Trinity Women sorted by age, 74% of women 25 or younger say that the harshness of the campaign will not discourage other women from running for office, but only 64% of those 26-to-50 agree with this — and in a very interesting divergence, only 44% of women over age 50 say the harshness of the campaign will not discourage other women while 36% of this age group agrees that the harshness WILL discourage other women.

While the survey offers a good deal of hope for the future political engagement of women, despite the harshness of the campaign, there is more interesting divergence of views on other questions by gender and by age:

• 90% of Trinity Women but only 69% of Trinity Men agree with the statement, “Hillary will be a role model to encourage other women to run for public office.”  See top graphic above.
  • Sorted by age among Trinity Women, 94% of those 25 or younger say that Hillary will be a role model, compared to 89% of those 26-to-50 and 92% of those over 50.
• 7% of Trinity Women but 23% of Trinity Men say that Hillary has too much baggage to be an effective role model.  See top graphic above.
  • Sorted by age among Trinity Women, the percentage is roughly the same.

On another set of questions, Women and Men at Trinity and across all age groups agree almost unanimously that evidence of a record of promoting equal rights for all people is a factor to consider in voting.  96% of Women and 92% of Men also agree that a record of support for equal pay and gender equity is important.

The poll shows some divergence on other opinions about the influence of gender in the election:

• 27% of Trinity Women say that gender is a factor they consider when voting, but only 15% of men agree.  Moreover, 63% of Trinity Women but only 38% of Trinity men say that gender is important in this election.  These results are above.
  • Among Women, age shows additional nuance:  19% of women in both cohorts under age 50 say that they consider gender a factor when voting, but 48% of women over 50 consider gender when voting.  See results below.
  • Moreover, 58% of Trinity Women 25 or younger say that gender is important in this election, compared to 65% in the 26-50 age group and 68% in the over-50 age group.

I’ll be posting more about this survey and the comments later this week, but meanwhile, if you want to see the full survey and comments, or the different cohort analyses, click on these links:

Trinity Straw Poll On Gender Factors in 2016 Election includes all responses and comments to questions

Trinity Straw Poll with Women’s Responses Sorted by Age Group

Trinity Straw Poll with Responses Sorted by Men and Women

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