New poll finds the majority of women voters consider themselves feminists

I’m sorry, what was that you were saying about how young women are afraid to call themselves feminists these days?

A poll commissioned by Ms. conducted just after the election found that 55 percent of women voters and 30 percent of men voters consider themselves feminists.

These results are generally 9 points higher than they were in 2008, when the same question was posed to voters, and this upward trend is likely to continue given the strong identification with feminism by younger women and women of color.

Speaking of younger women, a solid majority of them (58 percent) identify as feminists—as did 54 percent of older women, nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of Democratic women and a respectable 38 percent of Republican women.

“The feminist factor cuts across race and ethnic lines,” they note. In fact, white women as a whole are considerably less likely than black and Latina women to claim the label, which is in line with the voting differences I’ve noted before. And which perhaps helps to explain why much of the media continues to act as if feminists are unicorns these days.

Unsurprisingly, voters’ views on feminism tend to correlate with their choice of candidates. It’s actually pretty amazing that so many self-identified feminists are Republicans. You’d think they’d be pressuring their party to evolve a bit harder.

But I wonder what we’re gonna do about the fact that older women aren’t as likely to embrace feminism as younger women. Perhaps they’ve been convinced the fight has already been won? Maybe they should be reading more feminist blogs. Just sayin’.