Voters line up at a polling place in Washington, DC, on Election Day, November 5, 2024.
Nicholas Economu | Noor Photos | Getty Images
Going into election dayAmericans are deeply divided. But the gender gap is one of the most glaring divisions, with more women backing the vice president Kamala Harris and a majority of men support the president-elect. Donald Trump.
Women’s support for Harris is 8 percentage points higher, with the vice president’s approval rating at 53% and Trump’s 45%. Men’s support for Trump is 13 percentage points higher According to statistics, 55% of people support Trump and 42% support Harris, resulting in a gender gap of 21 percentage points NBC News Exit Polls.
Trump has broad support from men on economic issues, including Latino and black voters who feel particularly pessimistic, according to NBC News exit polls. inflation NBC polls show this is voters’ top concern, followed by the current state of the economy.
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Experts say one factor driving young people to the polls may have been perceived economic disparities that ultimately helped Trump win.
“Men feel like they don’t have a path to economic mobility,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.
‘It’s a huge gap’
People are increasingly disappointed.
Men are gradually withdrawing from the labor market, especially those between the ages of 25 and 54, which is considered their prime working age.
a study The Pew Research Center found that non-college-educated men leave the workforce at higher rates than college-educated men. At the same time, fewer young people are entering college over the past decade.
In 1995, young men and women were equally likely to have a bachelor’s degree, at 25 percent. Today, 47% of American women aged 25 to 34 have a bachelor’s degree, compared with 37% of men of the same age. also based on It’s Pew.
“That’s a very, very big gap,” Pollack said.
Schools often claim that a four-year degree is ideal. In many areas, vocational courses and other alternative pathways “are not as common as they once were,” Pollack said.
At the same time, some traditional blue-collar jobs that used to employ more men without a college education are declining due to automation and globalization, leading to job losses and uncertainty about future employment prospects, experts say.
Overall, Pollack said, there’s a group of people who feel like they’re “being left behind.”
Brett House, professor of economics at Columbia Business School, agrees: “The concern is that we are producing a group of young people who have neither developed the additional skills (nor the education) needed to fully participate in the labor market. ),” he said. ——Especially in the “former manufacturing powerhouses”.
Today, younger people are more likely to be considered NEET Richard Fry, a senior fellow at the Pew Research Center, said this group has been hit hardest by globalization and the decline of U.S. manufacturing, not in employment, education or training.
“When you’re not rewarded for your work, you work less,” Frye said recently told CNBC. “This is a basic principle of labor economics.”
Another survey showed that men are more likely than women to say they believe the election results will affect their financial lives in the short term. National Foundation for Financial Education. Most of these voters support Trump.
Those without a high school diploma and those with two-year degrees are also most likely to say their financial lives will be affected by the presidential election. NEFE surveyed 1,000 adults in October to understand their financial feelings about the 2024 election.
“Many Americans are rightly weighing their current financial situation against their future prospects as they vote this November,” said Billy Hensley, NEFE president and CEO, who is also part of the group. members of organization CNBC Global Financial Wellness Advisory Council.
Young women ‘making huge gains’ in labor market
Meanwhile, women have made “tremendous progress” in education and careers Ali Bustamante, an economist and president of the Roosevelt Institute, said they work as much or more than their male counterparts.
Today, Pollack said, women are getting married and having children later, if at all, and prioritizing their careers. She said they hope the government will make the choice less difficult by making child care and abortion services more accessible.
“There was a time when people were either mothers and wives or working spinsters,” Pollack said. “Nowadays, women tend to prioritize being professionals over being wives and mothers.”
However, while the issue of reproductive rights became a major factor in the 2024 presidential campaign, it did not push more women to vote. Exit polls show it’s also not proving to be one of the most important issues facing the country’s overall electorate.
“Trump’s message resonates with young people,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. “The pain that people in this country are feeling economically is real.”
Still, other issues — such as paid leave, affordable housing, child care and equal pay — are also important to families, she said.
“This is an election, but I think it’s wrong to suggest that women stop fighting at scale for reproductive freedom or the things they care about,” Graves said. “We have work to do.”
