Ahead of the upcoming 2024 presidential election, a new survey from Pew Research Center has reported on the opinions of registered voters regarding a number of cultural issues relevant to the United States. The survey includes data regarding both Democrats and Republicans’ views on feminism, marriage, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
According to the survey results, the majority of democrat-leaning and republican-leaning voters have vastly different opinions on the state of women’s progress in the United States. Nearly three-quarters of democrats and 65 percent of all women voters believe women still face obstacles to get ahead of men, compared to 29 percent of republicans and 39 percent of all male voters. However, the large majority of democrats (90 percent), republicans (74 percent), women (88 percent), and men (77 percent) all agree that the progress women have made in society has not come at the expense of men.
Differences were also found among voters’ opinions on how important it is to prioritize marriage and having children. About 59 percent of republican voters and 44 percent of male voters agree marriage and starting a family should be a societal priority, compared to only 19 percent of democrat voters and 34 percent of women voters. Additionally, the survey found a similar pattern among voters’ comfortability with women keeping their last name after getting married, with men and republican voters more likely to express discomfort with women not taking their husband’s last name. The large majority of all voters believe widespread access to birth control is good for society, however the parties remained especially divided on the topic of abortion.
The survey revealed a large gap between democrat and republican voters’ views on gender identity. About 90 percent of republican voters believe gender is determined exclusively by sex assigned at birth, compared to 59 percent of democrat voters believing gender can be different than a person’s assigned sex at birth. However, since 2017, voters from both parties have increasing leaned more towards the former opinion. There were similar differences in comfortability with the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community among the parties, but not to the extent of the division on comfortability with transgender people.