Young women trend far more liberal than young men: survey

A new survey found that young women are much more likely to politically identify as liberal while young men are more likely to identify as conservative or align with MAGA Republicans. 

The survey, which was conducted by Change Research and shared with Teen Vogue, found that overall, young women, transgender people and nonbinary people trend more politically left than young men.

Nearly two-thirds — 64 percent — of women respondents identified as either progressive or liberal, while 13 percent identified as moderate and 11 percent identified as conservative. Three-quarters of transgender and nonbinary voters identified as progressive, with an additional 11 percent identifying as liberal and 7 percent saying they do not identify with anything, the magazine reported.

On the other hand, men were more likely to lean right: 13 percent of men surveyed identified themselves as libertarian, 18 percent said they were conservative and 11 percent aligned themselves with MAGA Republicans, a term derived from former President Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan. Another 24 percent said they were progressive and 15 percent said they were liberal.

When looking ahead to next year’s presidential election, President Biden was the clear favorite among young women voters with 65 percent of support. Another 25 percent of women said they would vote for Trump.

Neither Biden nor Trump emerged as the majority favorite among young men, with 43 percent saying they would vote for Biden if the election was held today and 41 percent saying they would vote for Trump.

The poll was conducted Aug. 25 to Sept. 1 among 1,033 registered voters ages 18-35 and has a margin of error of 3.4 percent.

The results of this poll are also in line with other surveys that suggest young women are increasingly trending more left than young men. Last year, 44 percent of young women identified themselves as liberal, according to Gallup Poll data that was analyzed by the Survey Center on American Life.

Some experts have attributed this trend to a range of political and societal issues, including the #MeToo movement and abortion policy. Data released last year showed that 61 percent of young women consider abortion a critical issue, compared with 36 percent of all Americans.

Other research also shows that overall, young people are less likely to identify with a political party as a growing number of young voters are becoming more skeptical of the party establishment.