Young women increasingly identifying as liberal: Analysis

Young women are trending more liberal now than a decade ago — specifically on issues of abortion, the environment, gun laws and race relations — according to a Gallup study released Thursday.

From 2017-24, an average of 40 percent of women aged 18-29 identified as liberal — 12 points higher than from 2001-07 and 15 points higher than young men in the same age range.

On the issues of abortion, gun laws and the environment, women with liberal perspectives also increased by 15 points, per Gallup’s survey.

Young women’s views on other issues — like the death penalty, health care policy, labor unions, government regulation and the Israel-Hamas war — slanted slightly more liberal than in the past. However, their beliefs around some other topics, like defense spending, did not show significant change, the study found.

While women’s ideals moved closer to liberals, the analysis also showed young men’s views veered more toward moderates than liberals in the last 25 years. 

“Notwithstanding their slightly lower liberal self-identification, young men have also become more likely to hold the liberal positions on these issues, but the increases have been smaller,” researchers noted. “As a result, the associated gender gaps between young women and men have widened substantially.”

Earlier this year, a separate survey released by Gallup showed that Americans as a whole shifted more liberal and was just 1 point less than the all-time high. In general, however, the country still seemed to be mostly center-right. 

Similarly, in 2022, another survey from the analytics firm showed that while 44 percent of women considered themselves to be liberal in 2021, 25 percent of men identified the same way.

Former President Trump and Vice President Harris are competing to draw in support from young voters. Surveys show Harris leading Trump among the demographic, and the Democratic nominee bringing in more support from the age group than President Biden did before dropping from the race.

The latest numbers came from an analysis of surveys taken between January 2001 and July 2024 of adults ages 18-29.

Broken down by political ideology, the margin of error was less than 2 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. Broken down by education level, the margin of error was 3 points to 11 points, depending on survey period.