Republicans less optimistic about the increasing role of women in politics
A majority of Americans say that the recent influx of new female candidates for Congress is a good thing, although men and Republicans are less likely than the public at large to view the trend as a positive one.
A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds that six-in-ten Americans — 61 percent — see the new crop of female candidates as a positive development, with another third— 33 percent — seeing it as neither good nor bad.
An even higher percentage of women — 68 percent — are positive about the increasing number of female congressional candidates, while 54 percent of men agreed.
Half of Republicans, however, said they were ambivalent about the trend. Fifty percent of Republicans called the increase in female candidates “neither good nor bad,” and an additional 10 percent labeled it a negative development.
That’s compared with fully 80 percent of Democrats who cheered the increased role of women in politics.
The partisan divide may reflect Democratic energy around female candidates. Of the record-breaking 476 women who filed to run for the House this cycle, 356 are Democrats, while just 120 are Republicans, according for the Center for American Women and Politics.
Americans are less convinced, however, that more women would make for a more competent or a more respectful atmosphere in Congress. Majorities — 53 percent and 54 percent respectively — say more women in Congress wouldn’t make a difference when it comes to the body’s effectiveness or its civility.
The poll also finds that a growing percentage of Americans are personally hopeful that a female president will be elected in their lifetime. Forty-five percent said that’s their personal view, compared with 38 percent who said the same in 2014. Women are more hopeful than men, with 51 percent of women expressing hope for a female commander in chief while just 38 percent of men have the same view.
But again, the starkest difference comes with partisanship. More than six-in-ten — 63 percent — of Democrats are hopeful that a woman will be elected president in their lifetime, while just 24 percent of Republicans say the same.