Americans Don’t Think Having a Woman President Is Important

According to the survey, Americans don’t think a woman president would do better or worse than a man when it comes to leadership or various policy areas. But they do see a stark difference in the way men and women running for office are treated by the media.

The survey found 58 percent believe women candidates are punished more than men for showing emotions. Similarly, 48 percent said women hold a greater disadvantage when running when they have young children at home than men who are also parents.

The political experience of a woman candidate is also often judged more harshly than her male competitors, experts say.

“Women are judged more harshly if it seems like they’re learning on the job,” said Amanda Hunter, research and communications director at the Barbara Lee Foundation, a research nonprofit that analyzes gender bias and elections, as reported by FiveThirtyEight.

“So that means they have to be uber-prepared to run, while men can kind of figure it out as they go.”

When it comes down to it, just over a majority of Americans agree that there are not enough women in high political office in the United States, but the underlying issues are wide-ranging.

For one, the problem might lie in the perceptions Americans have about their fellow Americans. Even if a female candidate fits their policy views, one might be hesitant to cast a ballot for the woman in the primary election due to the fear that America at large would never elect a woman president, research suggests.

A 2019 Ipsos/Daily Beast poll found only 33 percent of Democrats and independents believed their neighbors would be comfortable with a female president. And this type of view could significantly hamper any efforts by a woman to make it to the final election.