By Amanda Arroyo ‘25, Peyton Brill ‘26, and Allie Pae ‘25
In this post, we examine gender differences in vote choice and abortion attitudes based on surveys of Wesleyan students and the U.S. public in the lead up to the 2024 election. The gender gap in the general public is well-established, with women tending to support Democratic candidates at higher rates than men. Looking specifically at the younger cohort, New York Times/Siena College polling found large gaps in presidential vote choice between young men (58% Trump) and women (67% Harris) aged 18-29. Do these gender gaps persist among Wesleyan students, who, according to our survey, overwhelmingly supported Harris?
To answer this question, we draw on a survey of Wesleyan students and Wesleyan SurveyLab survey of the general public conducted by YouGov. The target population for the Wesleyan survey was in-residence Wesleyan students, and we received 616 responses. The target population for the YouGov survey was U.S. adults 18 and older. We received 1,350 total responses in the YouGov survey.
Topline Numbers
Table 1 shows the presidential preferences for Wesleyan students, the full YouGov sample, and YouGov respondents under 30. Both surveys were in the field before election day but during a time period when many voters had already voted early. Respondents who had yet to vote were asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, with four candidates listed (Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver). Respondents could also answer “Other,” “Not sure,” or “I would not vote in this race.” Respondents who had already voted were given the same response options with the exception of the final option, where the wording was changed to, “I did not vote in this race.” International students who were not registered to vote in the United States were not asked the vote choice question in the Wesleyan survey.
Overall, 85% of Wesleyan students said they supported Kamala Harris, far outpacing the 43% of YouGov respondents who supported Harris. Additionally, a subset of YouGov voters under 30 (YouGov “Young”) was created to see how the young people in our national survey compared to Wesleyan students. Wesleyan students still had far stronger support for Harris than these young YouGov voters, with 48% of this subset of the YouGov respondents supporting Harris.
The Wesleyan survey had the lowest proportion of respondents who said they would not or did not vote in the presidential race (2%) in comparison to the full YouGov survey (8%) and the young YouGov respondents (13%). Similarly, only 1% of Wesleyan students were not sure who they would vote for, in comparison to 5% of YouGov respondents and 6% of young YouGov respondents. From a methodological standpoint, as a voluntary response survey, the Wesleyan survey likely over-represented politically engaged students. Students who feel passionately about politics are more likely to choose to complete the survey, fueling these gaps. But, the 4 or 5 percent difference between the Wesleyan survey and the YouGov respondents indicates that the political engagement of Wesleyan respondents may not be too far from reality.
Table 1. Presidential Vote Choice
| Wesleyan Survey | YouGov | YouGov “Young” | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donald Trump | 7% | 41% | 29% |
| Kamala Harris | 85% | 43% | 48% |
| Jill Stein | 3% | 2% | 2% |
| Chase Oliver | <1% | <1% | <1% |
| Other | 2% | 2% | 1% |
| Not sure | 1% | 5% | 6% |
| Would/did not vote | 2% | 8% | 13% |
Table 2 shows presidential vote choice broken down by gender amongst the three categories of respondents. When broken down by gender, gender gaps between Trump-Harris support were present in all three groups. More women in the Wesleyan (+18%) and full YouGov (+8%) surveys supported Harris than men. At Wesleyan, men had the highest rate of support for Trump, with 11% more young men than women supporting Trump. Interestingly, the subset of young people in the YouGov survey actually had slightly stronger support for Harris amongst men (+0.2%). Additionally, the Wesleyan survey included options for students to identify themselves as genderqueer or self-describe their gender. Respondents who selected either option were combined into a single category for purposes of analysis. Zero percent of these students voted for Trump, although female students supported Harris at higher rates than students who describe as genderqueer or self-describe their gender in another way.
Table 2. Presidential Vote Choice by Gender
| Wesleyan Survey | YouGov | YouGov “Young” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Man | Woman | Genderqueer/self-describe | Male | Female | Male | Female | |
| Donald Trump | 13% | 2% | 0% | 47% | 36% | 32% | 26% |
| Kamala Harris | 76% | 94% | 89% | 39% | 47% | 48% | 48% |
| Jill Stein | 3% | 1% | 6% | 1% | 2% | 1% | 3% |
| Chase Oliver | <1% | 0% | 2% | 1% | <1% | 0% | 2% |
| Other | 3% | <1% | 2% | 2% | 1% | 3% | 0% |
| Not Sure | 2% | 2% | 0% | 4% | 5% | 5% | 8% |
| Did not vote | 3% | 1% | 3% | 7% | 9% | 12% | 13% |
In addition to vote choice, respondents in both the Wesleyan and YouGov surveys who voted for Harris were asked, “Is/Was your vote for Kamala Harris more a vote for Harris or a vote against Donald Trump?” The graphs below illustrate the proportion of Harris supporters who said their vote was a vote “for Harris” (as opposed to a “vote against Trump”) by their gender. In the Wesleyan student survey, women were the only gender to have over 50% of respondents vote “for Harris.” The same gap remained with the full sample of YouGov Harris voters, albeit to a lesser extent. However, the sample of YouGov Harris voters under 30 had a larger proportion of men whose vote was a vote “for Harris.” This differs starkly from the Wesleyan student sample, although there are only 142 respondents under 30 in the YouGov survey who voted for Harris and the observed gender difference in the “vote for Harris” among voters in this group is not statistically significant. More research is needed to understand the political behavior of young people in this election.
Figure 1. Voting “For Harris” Among Wesleyan Harris Voters by Gender
Figure 2. Voting “For Harris” Among YouGov Harris Voters by Gender
Gender and Abortion Attitudes
To better understand issue positions differences across gender and age, we compare the political stances of Wesleyan students and YouGov respondents on abortion. Previous polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s (KFF) survey of women voters points toward abortion being the most important issue among women under 30 years old. Based on these findings, we expect abortion attitudes to vary by gender, both at Wesleyan and nationally. Thus, we compared the differences in abortion attitudes by gender between the Wesleyan and YouGov sample. Respondents in the Wesleyan Student Survey were asked, “Do you think abortion should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances?” Wesleyan respondents were also given a “Not Sure” option, which 1% of respondents selected. The question wording was the same for the YouGov survey, although without the “Not Sure” option.
In the Wesleyan Student Survey, the majority of the sample (76%) favored abortion being legal under any circumstance. The second most popular choice favored abortion being legal only under certain circumstances at 22%. Less than 1% of the sample favored outlawing abortion in all circumstances. Figure 4 shows the distribution of responses for women, men, and respondents who identified as genderqueer or chose to self-describe. Variation exists based on gender, with the majority of women (84%) favoring abortion under any circumstance. As Figure 4 shows, men at Wesleyan were significantly more likely than women to select the “legal only under certain circumstances” category (34%) compared to women (14%) and students who identify as genderqueer or self-describe (5%).
Figure 3. Abortion Attitudes at Wesleyan by Gender
In contrast, the majority of the YouGov sample (55%) favored abortion only in certain circumstances. The second most common response was unconditional support for abortion, at 35%. Only 10% of the sample favor outlawing abortion in all circumstances. The distribution of abortion attitudes across gender was similar between men and women. Half of women in the sample favored abortion under certain circumstances, 39% expressed unconditional support for abortion, and 10% favored outlawing abortion. Similarly, 59% of all men in the sample favored abortion under certain circumstances, 30% favored abortion under any circumstances, and 11% favored outlawing abortion in all circumstances.
Based on KFF’s baseline of 30 years old, we considered the role of age in the analysis in abortion attitudes as the median age of the YouGov was 46 years of age, significantly older than the Wesleyan student sample. However, even when looking at respondents under 30 years old, the majority favored abortion only under certain circumstances (55%).
Figure 4. Abortion Attitudes by Gender in YouGov Sample
In our comparisons of abortion attitudes between the Wesleyan and national population, responses in the Wesleyan sample were significantly more liberal, even when accounting for age differences in the samples. This distinction suggests that Wesleyan students may deviate significantly from the typical distribution of U.S. abortion attitudes. In more liberal samples, like the Wesleyan Student Survey, abortion attitudes vary by whether individuals have unconditional support for abortion or favor abortion only under certain circumstances. The “legal under certain circumstances” category could be interpreted differently based on individuals’ ideological differences. It may be beneficial in future surveys to ask a follow up question on under what circumstances individuals would support or oppose abortion.