Monday, April 23, 2012

Poll:Romney/GOP Respect Women That Work Outside Home More Than Obama/Dems Respect Those Working Inside

By Susan Duclos

Pulse Opinion Research conducted The Hill Poll of 1,000 likely voters on April 19. View the crosstabs here.

The results of the poll linked above provide insight to the differences in how single women think versus married women and according to The Hill article release on these results, Mitt Romney and Republicans are seen as having more respect for women working outside of the home than Barack Obama and Democrats have for those that work in the home.

Forty-nine percent of likely voters said the presumptive GOP presidential nominee respects women who have independent careers, while 27 percent said he doesn’t and 24 percent weren’t sure.

When asked if President Obama respects women who stay at home rather than pursue a career, 37 percent of likely voters said he doesn’t and 35 percent said he does. Twenty-nine percent were unsure.


On women's issues:

On the issue of which candidate better understands women’s issues, Obama has a slight advantage over Romney with all voters, 42 percent to 40 percent, but that was a statistical tie given the poll’s 3-point margin of error.

When it came to just women voters, 46 percent said Romney better understands their issues while 41 percent said Obama is better.

There was also a statistical tie when it came to which political party is better for women, with 42 percent of all voters saying Republicans and 41 percent Democrats.

Single vs Married:

Single voters were far more likely than married ones to say that Obama is better on women’s issues: 54 percent of singles held that view against 35 percent of married voters. Conversely, Romney was chosen by 47 percent of married voters and 26 percent of singles.

Fifty-five percent of married voters said Romney respects women who work outside the home, while 36 percent of singles said he did and 38 percent said he didn’t.

Forty percent of married people said they didn’t think Obama respects women who stay at home, but 39 percent of single people said he does.


 Historically women have traditionally favored Democrats, in gender gap surveys that show the preferences from 1980 to 2008, but in the 2010 midterm elections, Democrats, who won just 48% of the women's vote, down from 55% four years before, were edged out by Republicans that received 49% of the vote, according to exit polls.

The whole "GOP's War On Women" meme that Democrats have been messaging in a coordinated manner for decades and especially concentrated now in preparation for the November 2012 election, hoping to give Obama the edge with women which are a significant voting bloc, seems to be crumbling around them.