Donald Trump Voters and Support for Gender Equality

Donald Trump Voters and Support for Gender Equality Mark Setzler, High Point University Alixandra B. Yanus, High Point University April 8, 2017

How do the individual-level attributes linked to supporting Donald Trump in the 2016 general election correspond with support for gender equality?

Who Were Trump Voters? “NASCAR Dads” Republican, blue-collar, not college educated, rural, white men Attitudes privileging patriarchy, Christianity, capitalism Difficult to mobilize and unify in past elections

Who Else Voted for Trump? Individuals with high levels of racial animus Highly correlated with sexism, homophobia and other out-group biases (e. g. Aosved, Long, and Voller 2009; Sidanius 1992; Henley and Pincus 1978) Individuals with authoritarian personalities Preference for world with clear gender roles (Peterson and Zurbriggen 2010) Resistance to change (Ekehammar et al. 2004)

Hypotheses Republican, white, male, rural, blue collar, and religious respondents will also be less supportive of women’s equality. Individuals with more authoritarian personalities will be less supportive of women’s equality. Individuals that express higher racial animus will be less supportive of women’s equality.

Data Clearer. Thinking. org online survey administered using Mechanical Turk October 2 -3, 2016 950 individuals Oversample of likely Trump voters Post-stratification age weight applied

Dependent Variables Disagree that “women lead as well as men” (41% of Trump voters; 17% of others) Disagree that “it is important to continue to fight for gender equality” (63% of Trump voters; 22% of others) Agree that “women and men are best suited for different kinds of work” (80% of Trump voters; 52% of others)

Independent Variables Key variables Demographics Republican, male, white, age, religiosity, rural, blue collar Authoritarian disposition index (12 questions on obedience, desire for strong leadership, anti -intellectualism, intolerance, support force against others, hyper morality) Racial animus index (4 questions)

Key Finding from Multivariate Modelling Only some of the factors that led people to support Trump also correspond with attitudes inimical to gender equality. Racial animus has strongest, most consistent effect

Discussion and Conclusions Likely voters with high racial animus also hold views that pose a threat to gender equality Voters’ support of a sexist candidate who doesn’t see value in gender equality is perhaps not as surprising as commentators first thought Open question as to whether this activism can be sustained.