Younger voters in NC have ‘conservative beliefs about the role of women,’ poll finds
Younger voters in North Carolina show more sexism than other age groups, even among Democrats, which may be why women candidates are not doing as well in the state, according to a poll from Meredith College.
“The Meredith Poll did find some evidence of hostile sexism and were somewhat surprised that Generation Z had very conservative beliefs about the role of women in society,” according to the poll.
Generation Z comes after the Millennial generation and includes anyone born after 1997, according to the Pew Research Center. This will be the first presidential election for many in Gen. Z, with the oldest members of the generation turning 23 this year.
The Meredith Poll found former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg virtually tied for first place in the primary for the Democratic presidential nomination in North Carolina. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was “in striking distance” of the front runners with about 11% of likely voters before the Super Tuesday primary.
The Meredith Poll used questions to gauge attitudes about gender roles from the Hostile Sexism Scale, an academic scale for measuring sexism.
The pollsters said they wanted to compare attitudes on gender roles and sexism to support for women running for office.
“The hypothesis was that some ‘social desirability’ could be present in the survey. This means that some may say they support women candidates, but possess higher levels of hostile sexism, meaning it is unlikely they would actually vote for women candidates,” the poll found.
“These findings do suggest why North Carolinians, even on the Democratic side, seem to favor male candidates over female candidates in the primary elections,” Meredith Poll Director David McLennan said.
“Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Tulsi Gabbard appear to be underperforming in North Carolina compared with how they are doing in other states,” he said.
The poll asked several questions from the Hostile Sexism Scale, including whether or not people agreed with statements like “Women should worry less about their rights and more about becoming good wives and mothers.”
On that question, more than 45% of Gen Z responded with “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree,” compared to about 27% of Millennials and 15% of Baby Boomers.
But when asked if they agree with the statement, “Women should assume their rightful place in business and other professions along with men,” 80% of Gen Z said they “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree.” That’s about the same percentage for Millennials and Gen X. More than 95% of Baby Boomers said they agree with that statement.
This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 8:16 AM with the headline "Younger voters in NC have ‘conservative beliefs about the role of women,’ poll finds."
