Younger Voters Least Likely To Elect Female President But Want More Women In Gov’t, Poll Says

The majority of voters want more women in elected office, according to a new American University poll released on Monday.

The survey, first reported on by Politico, found that 54% of voters said there are “too few women” in elected office. Meanwhile, 35% of respondents said there are “about the right number” of women currently serving in office and 11% said there were “too many” women in elected office.

The poll found that younger voters are the least likely to support a female president being elected, with 75% of women under 50 being open to voting for a woman as president, while 80% of men in the same age bracket said the same. Comparatively, 87% of men and women over 50 said they were open to electing a female president, the poll says.

Moreover, 4 in 10 voters – particularly Republicans and younger respondents – said they knew someone who would not vote for a female president, according to the poll. Still, the poll also found that 83% of Americans said they believe it is important to elect more women.

“This survey reveals a powerful paradox,” Viva de Vicq, the lead pollster of the survey, told Politico. “Voters trust women on the issues that matter most and want to see more women in office. Yet when asked about the presidency, bias and narrow expectations resurface.”

Of Democrats surveyed, 92% said it is important to elect more women, compared to 77% of Republicans who said the same, according to the poll. The survey also showed that 91% of voters aged 18 to 34 believe it is important that more women get elected, while 80% of voters aged 50 to 64 felt the same.

Additionally, 26% of voters said they prefer that the first female president would be “tough” instead of “likable,” compared to 19% who responded it was more important for her to be seen as “likable” and 56% who said it is equally important to be seen as both.