Gender in the 2024 election

With Vice President Kamala Harris rising to the top of the Democratic ticket, gender has been thrust into the limelight of the 2024 election. In just the past six weeks, there have been reports of young women coming back to Democrats, midwestern Dads, WWE fighters at conventions, childless cat lady comments resurfacing, and young men flocking to Trump, showing the endless ways gender has come front and center in 2024.

But, what does that look like among the public? How does gender factor into views and perceptions of major issues like the economy and abortion? 

Below are five charts showing where men and women differ in the economy, abortion, the election, and how everyone thinks about the future.

1. More confidence? Men are more confident than women across nearly every aspect of consumer confidence. Men are more confident regarding how they feel about the economy now and their ability to invest and participate in the labor market. The only place that’s not true? Jobs. Both men and women are feeling good about their jobs. However, historically men have been more confident than women on the economy.

2. WFH. There are still some lingering pandemic effects on who works from home and who doesn’t. Women are slightly more likely to report only working from home, while men are somewhat more likely to be commuting to their workplace. Different experiences then, different behavior now.

3. Abortion in 2024. On that topic, women are more likely to know someone who has had an abortion, with one in six saying they have had an abortion themselves. Perhaps related, women are also more likely to say that abortion will be important in determining which candidate they support. To put that in perspective, that makes abortion an electorally important issue for women, similar to immigration and appointments to the Supreme Court.

4. Gender gap on the ballot. There is a gender gap in the horserace numbers. This isn’t new. Much ink has been spilled on the topic. But look at the numbers! Harris does twice as well among women as former President Donald Trump does among men. She has a decisive advantage with this group. Aggregating polls with women, Harris improves by seven percentage points over Biden here. Yet, that still isn’t up to where Biden was in 2020.

5. Hope abounds. Yet, despite these differences, most men and women are feeling hopeful about their future, whatever might come.

Men and women have different experiences and feelings about the economy, abortion, and the election. However, most still are hopeful for the future.

With that in mind, over the next two and half months we can expect that gender will continue to be a sticking point in the 2024 election. Of course, with the first female Black South Asian presidential candidate, that might be expected. But this election is not limited to that. The way each campaign discusses and appeals to men and women is very different and will likely take center stage in the final weeks of the campaign.