1. Donald Trump Voters and Support for Gender Equality
Mark Setzler, High Point University
Alixandra B. Yanus, High Point University
April 8, 2017

2. How do the individual-level attributes linked to supporting Donald Trump in the 2016 general election correspond with support for gender equality?

3. Who Were Trump Voters? “NASCAR Dads”
Republican, blue-collar, not college educated, rural, white men
Attitudes privileging patriarchy, Christianity, capitalism
Difficult to mobilize and unify in past elections

4. Who Else Voted for Trump?
Individuals with high levels of racial animus
Highly correlated with sexism, homophobia and other out-group biases (e.g. Aosved, Long, and Voller 2009; Sidanius 1992; Henley and Pincus 1978)
Individuals with authoritarian personalities
Preference for world with clear gender roles (Peterson and Zurbriggen 2010)
Resistance to change (Ekehammar et al. 2004)

5. Hypotheses
Republican, white, male, rural, blue collar, and religious respondents will also be less supportive of women’s equality.
Individuals with more authoritarian personalities will be less supportive of women’s equality.
Individuals that express higher racial animus will be less supportive of women’s equality.

6. Data
ClearerThinking.org online survey administered using Mechanical Turk
October 2-3, 2016
950 individuals
Oversample of likely Trump voters
Post-stratification age weight applied

7. Dependent Variables
Disagree that “women lead as well as men” (41% of Trump voters; 17% of others)
Disagree that “it is important to continue to fight for gender equality” (63% of Trump voters; 22% of others)
Agree that “women and men are best suited for different kinds of work” (80% of Trump voters; 52% of others)

8. Independent Variables
Key variables
Demographics
Republican, male, white, age, religiosity, rural, blue collar
Authoritarian disposition index (12 questions on obedience, desire for strong leadership, anti-intellectualism, intolerance, support for force against others, hyper morality)
Racial animus index (4 questions)

9. Key Finding from Multivariate Modelling
Only some of the factors that led people to support Trump also correspond with attitudes inimical to gender equality.
Racial animus has strongest, most consistent effect

12. Discussion and Conclusions
Likely voters with high racial animus also hold views that pose a threat to gender equality
Voters’ support of a sexist candidate who doesn’t see value in gender equality is perhaps not as surprising as commentators first thought
Open question as to whether this activism can be sustained.