Gender gap widens in White House race as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump go head-to-head

CHICAGO:

The politically divisive White House race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump has also highlighted a marked discrepancy in votes between women and men, according to polling data and analysts.

Democrat Harris, who is black and of South Asian descent, is vying to become the first female president of the United States, while Trump is known for making comments that disparage women and is an advocate of restricting abortion rights.

In a CBS poll released this week, 56 percent of women surveyed said they would vote for Harris, while 44 percent supported Trump, a Republican. By contrast, 54 percent of men surveyed supported Trump, while 45 percent said they would vote for Harris.

The figures from a recent Siena/New York Times poll are even more impressive. 56% of female voters support Harris, with only 35% supporting Trump.

By comparison, 52 percent of male voters said they preferred the Republican, with 39 percent backing the Democratic nominee, according to that poll.

On election day, Trump “will discover the power of women in 2024,” US President Joe Biden said on Monday, endorsing his running mate, Harris.

Biden was referring to a 2022 Supreme Court decision — for which Trump has publicly claimed credit — that struck down women’s federal right to seek abortions.

Female voters in the United States have been swinging toward Democrats for years, but analysts say the gender divide in this election is stark. “It’s not a gap, it’s a gap,” Frank Luntz, an influential pollster, recently told CNN. “We’ve never seen this before.”

Lundz went so far as to predict that “there will be divorces because of the fighting between them.”
The analyst particularly pointed to Trump’s ongoing strategy of launching personal attacks against Harris, including bashing her looks, her intelligence and even her laugh.

“Don’t insult your opponent because of how he looks, how he talks. Women can’t stand this,” he said, adding that women voters were looking for a candidate who would focus on the future rather than “anger about the past.”

The Trump camp’s attacks on Harris appear to have had the unintended effect of mobilizing the Democratic base in some cases.

In July, Trump’s running mate JD Vance caused an uproar when a 2021 clip resurfaced of him calling Harris and others “childless cat ladies” who had no “direct stake” in the country’s future.

“Masculinity is front and center in Donald Trump’s campaign,” said Sabrina Karim, associate professor at Cornell University and director of the Gender and Security Sector Lab.

“He constantly compares himself to other men, describing how attractive and strong he is compared to other men, and often puts women down, which are all key characteristics of hyper-masculinity.”

Trump’s appeal, however, “is not limited to men,” said Sonia Gipson Rankin, a law professor at the University of New Mexico, adding that his campaign is based on “a focus on power, dominance and traditional masculinity.”

“A lot of people of different genders feel that these traits are criticized or devalued in today’s world, so when President Trump presents himself as a tough, no-nonsense leader, it resonates with them,” he said. Harris has embraced Trump’s aggressive rhetoric in recent speeches.

“This campaign is about recognizing that, frankly, over the last few years, there has been this kind of perversion,” he said at a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Sunday.

“That the measure of a leader’s strength is based on who you bring down, when what we know is the real and true measure of a leader’s strength is based on who you lift up,” he said.

Fueling the divide between male and female voters was the evolving state of reproductive rights in the United States. Many conservative Republican-governed states have placed bans or restrictions on abortion access following the Supreme Court ruling.

But “while abortion is a major issue, candidates will have to address a variety of concerns and show how their policies connect with all voters” regardless of gender identity or other beliefs, Rankin said.

Harris’ campaign has so far avoided focusing on the fact that she could become the first woman president of the United States, in stark contrast to fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton’s message in 2016.

Regardless of who wins in November, however, analysts warn that the divergence in voting patterns along gender lines appears to be part of a deeper trend.

Karim, of Cornell University, noted that some US polls show that young men and women appear to be moving in different political directions, creating deeper divisions within the same age group.
“This difference is different from previous generations,” he said.