WOMEN MARCH IN MAN’S WORLD
Survey shows gender gaps persist and future is uncertain
The emotions are complex driving hundreds of thousands of women, many first- time activists arriving on Greyhound buses from as far away as Miami and Baton Rouge, to march on Washington the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration.
But it starts with this: It’s still better to be a man in America, and sexism still is a problem in society. That’s according to the first major survey on gender since the November election, by the non- partisan research firm Perry-Undem, finding a majority of women feel this way.
There’s broad public consensus among both genders that work remains to be done in securing women’s rights, including equal pay and paid family leave; yet the male Republican voters who elected Trump — and who’ll now hold the reins of power in Washington — are the least likely to see sexism, violence against women, unequal care- giving responsibilities, racism, access to abortion and birth control as contributors to inequality, the survey found. Trump’s Cabinet so far is 90% male and 90% white.
“The State of the Union on Gender Equality, Sexism and Women’s Rights,” helps explain why so many Americans have chosen this mo- ment in history to demonstrate. While men will participate in the Saturday march, according to the bus and train platform Wanderu, 81% of travelers to Washington are women.
The single biggest contributor to this peaking civic participation is the president- elect’s comments and past behavior toward women, according to the survey. It ranks negative feelings about his actions as more predictive of getting politically involved than ideology, age, gender, race, education and geography.
“That’s a pretty big finding and pretty much explains how the women’s march organically arose and is happening now,” said Tresa Undem, the lead pollster.
The survey of 1,302 adults was conducted Dec. 9- 27. Forty- three percent of participants voted for Trump and 46% for Hillary Clinton.
It is no surprise that the Women’s March has adopted Clinton’s 1995 declaration as its battle cry: “Women’s rights are human rights.”
“It’s not just Hillary didn’t win. It’s wow, there’s real potential here for us to lose some things we’ve worked for,” said Jean Harris, an expert in feminist history at the University of Scranton.
“What we are saying is that we cannot and will not be ignored,” said Janaye Ingram, logistics director for the march.
As a result of Trump’s win, twothirds of survey participants say they’re doing things differently, including six in 10 who say they’re ei- ther paying more attention to elected officials’ actions-donating to an organization or getting involved in a direct political action in response to the election.
The good news is there’s broad agreement — 83% — that it’s important that Trump and Congress work to move forward on issues around women’s rights.
The challenge to the group is that the new administration is the least likely to perceive gender inequality, the survey found. The problem is connecting action to policy. “If Republican leadership in the new administration and Congress reflect Republican men in the population, they may not see connections between several policy issues and gender equality,” the studyt said.