Young women are more liberal than they have been in decades, according to a Gallup analysis of more than 20 years of polling data.

Over the past few years, about 4 in 10 young women between the ages of 18 and 29 have described their political views as liberal, compared with two decades ago when about 3 in 10 identified that way.

For many young women, their liberal identity is not just a new label. The share of young women who hold liberal views on the environment, abortion, race relations and gun laws has also jumped by double digits, Gallup found.

  • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Topic:

    Women are voting more liberally because they don’t like conservative positions on abortion, guns, and the environment.

    Weird dudes in this thread:

    “Men are being left behind!”

    —-

    Wut.

    • Rakonat@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      A few of the women I work with who are vocal about their politics, will quite firmly point to how conservatives still engage in victim blaming if a woman gets sexually harassed or assaulted, to say nothing of rape/murder, to their reasons for going blue.

      Their reproductive rights being curtailed while men old enough to be their father get viagra covered through their insurance telling them to just shut their legs is just a horrific bonus.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      I understand how abortion and guns can/do have a womens exclusive perspective, but how is the environment a womens issue? By environment you mean things like climate change and pollution, right?

      I can understand how liberals vs progressives would have different views…but I’m not grasping how men vs women would.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        There’s a sense of “Caring about nature is effeminate and for wusses” in toxic masculinity.

        • Throw_away_migrator@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Which I find extremely odd, since some traditionally masculine activities are nature oriented. Hunting, fishing, outdoorsy stuff in general. It wasn’t that long ago that (environmental) conservation was a huge component of those activities to ensure continued access for people to those activities. Maybe it still is but I certainly don’t get that impression as strongly anymore.

          • flicker@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Teddy Roosevelt was a big conservationist. He would’ve happily knocked some heads over the idea he was effeminate for it.

          • Fondots@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I take part in a lot of outdoorsy activities, there’s kind of a split. Lots of conservation-minded folks like myself, and lots of assholes who don’t seem to realize or care that they won’t be able to go hunting, fishing, etc. if they develop over all the woodlands, poison the waterways, etc. and just want an excuse to shoot something or justify their much-larger-than-needed, lifted, coal-rolling truck.

            Also a fair amount of people who don’t feel particularly strongly either way.

            Sales of hunting/fishing licenses and such do end up funding a lot of conservation efforts, though arguably in a lot of cases the money doesn’t necessarily go where it’s most needed.

            The more conservation-minded folks tend to be quieter about their interests and don’t make it their whole personality, they’re usually not the ones posing with a deer or fish in their profile pic.

          • Soup@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Weird conservatives have never been know to understand things like “longterm effects” or “treating what they have with any respect”.

            They like buying trucks, guns, and knives. They like showing those things off. Like the “rustic charm” in the memes that are really just about how anti-social they are. They like wearing red and black flannel, camo hats, and acting like they could totally live off the land just because their entire idea of nature is about who’s more violent.

            The people who can name the birds and trees, who gather responsibly, and just like to go for a nice canoe aren’t usually too conservative. Obviously it happens but that requires a level effort and stewardship for the land that’s often incompatible with the personality required to grasp onto conservatism.

      • Meron35@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Burning fossil fuels and polluting is viewed as masculine, whereas caring about the environment is feminine, in a phenomenon sociologists have coined as Petro-masculinity. Think of those men who roll coal in their lifted trucks towards cyclists in lycra, who they view as “gay”.

        Petro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire - Cara Daggett, 2018 - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0305829818775817

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          People are weird. I see nothing masculine or anti-masculine about recycling, or driving an electric car.

          Like…it doesn’t even seem related to how tough you are. If anything the really masculine guy would be the one who rides his bicycle everywhere.

          Really built calves. Leg muscles. Able to go 40mph from your legs alone. Isn’t that the real tough guy? Not the guy who gets into a large truck, and slightly presses a pedal downward.

          Like I said. People are weird.

      • Habahnow@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        I don’t know why either, but in I heard the same thing: more women tend to care not about the environment than men. Anecdotally, a lot of environmental related stores > and groups I go to are a majority women attended or assumed at women.

      • someguy3@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Caring about pollution is associated with wimpy electric cars instead of manly trucks, and the not manly activity of taking transit or cycling, and soyboy diets instead of steaks, and omg electric stoves, etc.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          And I don’t understand that, because my wimpy electric vehicle will leave your archaic, noisy, pollution belching vehicle in the dust, and will do so in effortless silence

    • spyd3r@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Women really need to reevaluate their position on guns. Guns are a self defense tool and a great equalizer that will allow you to defend yourself and your family against a rapist or home invader twice your size and double your strength. Gun rights are women’s rights and empowerment for women.

      • seejur@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Most rapes come from family members. At which point a kitchen knife when they sleep is more than enough

  • slacktoid@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    The conservative postion literally sees you subhuman … Its the conservative women that amaze me … How?

    • IonAddis@lemmy.world
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      Because most people run on their personal experiences, and don’t do great when they have to think very far ahead or extrapolate and make connections.

      If you’re lucky enough to be born into a conservative home that’s not bugshit crazy, and you’re lucky enough to not be TOO smart, neurodivergent, gay/lesbian/trans/etc. then you’ve probably never seen the full ugly face of conservatism because you were treated nicely.

      Lots of conservatives will treat you perfectly politely…if they get to know you, and as long as you look white and clean-cut enough. As long as you give the right social signifiers, basically.

      Most of my ex-conservative friends group was driven away from conservative family because we were abused in some obvious fashion, were gay/lesbian/trans, were neurodivergent, etc. We were different in ways that, ultimately, after a lot of pain, forced us to cut ties with family. (It was never our first choice though.)

      But a woman who was lucky to be born into a family that treats her halfway decently won’t experience that sort of ugliness until an emergency happens and it’s leopards-eating-faces time.

      And it’s VERY hard to rock the boat BEFORE something bad happens to you, when you know rocking it will have really bad consequences immediately. People don’t like to be shunned or kicked out of families, so if they’re not treated TOO badly they’ll toe the line and conform out of fear of the unknown and fear of losing everything they have and know.

      • slacktoid@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        Thank you for your thoughtful response to my blasé comment about a captain obvious level of Duh from a headline.

    • someguy3@lemmy.world
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      They don’t understand that that means inability to get a divorce, not being able to open a bank account, not having the right to vote, etc. The conservatives will say all the polite words like family values which sounds fine.

      • slacktoid@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        I mean that kind of trust only works if you’re seen as an equal. Which is hard to come by.

  • Jesus@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Shocker, when women lose basic reproductive healthcare rights, their views on abortion legislation and conservative politics change significantly.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldM
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    Don’t buy the “tradwife” myth. That’s just six or seven creepy “influencers,” who figured out how to make money from conservative boys dumb enough to think they have a relationship with fake online personalities.

  • LeroyJenkins@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    can we stop using Taylor Swift as a spokesperson for all young women? like I’m all for her as a pop singer, but the media gives that billionaire too much clout as a representative of all young women. can’t we just say young women speak for themselves without it requiring a billionaire woman to illustrate something for them?

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Also, as a woman about the same age as Ms. Swift, I’m fucking 30. Millennials aren’t young anymore. We’re just regular adults now

  • a9cx34udP4ZZ0@lemmy.world
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    My .02? There’s a large swath of “conservative” women who like the idea of going to church, being a stay-at-home mom, and having a husband that goes to work every day and provides for them. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that life.

    But what they found out is the guys espousing that lifestyle actually want to treat their wife as property. There was a solid 30 years of momentum building around “maybe I don’t want to have a two-income household, maybe I just want to be a mom”. Unfortunately, while the women were thinking “we’re partners in this household, I take care of the meals and the kids, you take care of making money” - the dudes were thinking “I own you, you do what I want, I do what I want, if you talk back, I’ll put you in your place”.

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Over the past few years, about 4 in 10 young women between the ages of 18 and 29 have described their political views as liberal

    I wonder how the other 6 in 10 young women would describe their political views. While 40% isn’t a majority, I would think liberals are a plurality. Still, it’s a little disheartening that there isn’t a clear majority in the US. It would be nice if a majority of Americans could reach a consensus.

    • eatthecake@lemmy.world
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      The survey included moderate on the scale so 40% does not mean that 60% are conservative. The article only covered the portion that was liberal or very liberal.

  • EnderMB@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    This really shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Trump and MAGA came about from disillusionment in politics and the rural working-class feeling left out, with the right sensing an opportunity to say outlandish shit to stand out.

    Today, women are disillusioned because they can’t afford to buy a home, can’t afford basic healthcare like most civilised countries, have zero workplace protections, have zero control over their own reproductive organs, and are lumped into the “DEI” category whenever the right discusses whether they should have opportunities in the workplace.

    I say this every time an American article is posted around the sheer surprise that something is happening. It isn’t new. Trump was preceded by Brexit and the rise of the right in Europe. Thankfully, we’ve also seen the implosion of the right over the last year or two, so if Harris can win then you’ll all be glad to hear that it’ll be a bloodbath of back-stabbing and finger-pointing as the right fight for whatever scraps are left - all while the loser sits on the sidelines shitting on their former allies for having the audacity to succeed them.

    With all that said, it’s a great thing, but hopefully this isn’t just pushed as a women-only thing. Real change needs everyone pushing in the same direction, and that needs real unity - something a good leader can bring.