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Is the liberal-conservative gap between young women and men growing?

By Tom Kertscher
YES

Since 2014, polling has shown that women between the ages of 18 and 29 have steadily become more liberal each year, while young men have not, Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life, wrote in a Jan. 23, 2024, article.

Cox observed “at no time in the past quarter century has there been such a rapid divergence between the views of young men and women.”

A Change Research survey of registered voters in May found that 58% of women ages 18 to 34 identified as progressive or liberal, versus 37% of men; and 24% of women identified as conservative or libertarian, versus 42% of men.

Change Research said its findings show a larger gender gap than Pew Research found in 1999.

At that time, 42% of young women identified as liberal, versus 34% of men; the same percentage of young women and men — 46% — called themselves conservative.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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Wisconsin Watch, the news arm of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, increases the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy.
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