Claire Cain Miller
Appearances
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
The economic uncertainty that this administration has brought for these young men who are just starting out careers, who are maybe just starting out, you know, graduating or investing for the first time or trying to start a family, this kind of economic uncertainty for those men who voted for him because of prices and the economy, I think is proving to be unsettling.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
But I think the bigger change would come from Politicians in general, including those in the democratic party, speaking directly to young men, acknowledging that this is half the population.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
that yes, women's rights are under attack, that yes, women have historically had fewer privileges than men and that they definitely need to be supported and spoken to, but that so do young men and that they have a lot of concerns right now, that they're falling behind in all the ways that we've talked about and that there are policies that can address that.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
And most of all, I just find that starting from when they're boys, They are told now what not to do, who not to be. Don't be that kind of man. Don't be toxic. Don't be loud in class. Sit still. Don't be disruptive. But they're not told what they can do in the way that when opportunities changed for girls, they were told, you can be a scientist. You could run for president.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
And so that's something that I think people are realizing very quickly right now. There's quite a national conversation around that. And I do imagine that potentially, if that starts to happen, that the gap could shrink.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
What about you, Claire? I think millennial women are strivers. They are ambitious and they're about achieving a lot. And I think Gen Z women, not to say they're not ambitious, but they have more of a sense of a balance and self-care and this idea that work should not be their main thing and that they should be able to stand up for themselves in that way.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
So in general, young people tend to be more liberal. And there's this idea that you get more conservative as you age when you start paying more income taxes and you have kids and want to move to the suburbs and start having these conservative ideas. On the other hand...
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
You know, I think there's a significant amount of political science I've read that disputes that fact a little and suggests that what's happening politically when you come of age, when you're around 18, really affects your lifelong views. And so it might just be about this moment in time that these young women are living in.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
So that same Gallup data shows that the turning point when young women just became way more liberal is 2016. So yes, I think it has a lot to do with Donald Trump. I called a bunch of young women voters and asked them about this. And they sort of described this triple punch. First, Hillary Clinton, who was on track to become the first female president, lost to Donald Trump.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
Shortly thereafter was Me Too. And then shortly thereafter, Roe v. Wade was overturned. This is also this generation of girls who was really, truly raised to believe that they could be anything that they wanted to be. This was the first generation of girls that was really out casing boys in school. And so in a way, this was all this big awakening. It really didn't fit with what they had been told.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
And as they entered adulthood, there were all of a sudden these major things happening, showing them that sexism was in fact still rampant.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
I think it's one of many ways that young men and women are diverging. So they're voting differently. They're going to college at different rates. They're going to church at different rates. Young men are becoming more religious compared with young women.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
That's really new. Young men's labor force participation is stagnant while young women's is surging. Young women are more likely to be partnered. There's just so many ways in which their life paths seem to be diverging.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
I think this has effects for dating and family formation and also just for a general sense that we are all moving in the same direction, that we want the same things, and that we're pushing towards sort of the same goals and outcomes.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
I interviewed a lot of young male Trump voters before and after the election, and they did indeed say that they shared liberal positions on lots of social issues like abortion or LGBTQ rights.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
They also said they weren't voting on those issues because they felt they were sort of taken care of, that abortion was now left to the states, that LGBTQ rights had more or less been achieved in their point of view. The economy, though, was their big issue. And what they meant by that was that they had been brought up believing that their role in society was to
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
you know, get a career and support a family. And they were very worried that they wouldn't be able to do that. They also said things to me like, you know, all I want is for my wife to be able to have free healthcare to have a baby and for the minimum wage to be $15 where I live. And I pointed out to him that those are both Democratic issues. Those aren't Republican issues generally.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
But I think what the Trump campaign offered is it spoke directly to these men. Several young male Trump voters who said, he talks like us. He talks like we do on a construction site. And they said to me, look, I don't like his sexist talk. I don't like the way that he denigrates people. But He does just talk like a normal person. He talks like one of us.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
So they felt seen, even if not by his policies, by his recognition and his campaign and the whole world around it, their recognition that these young men exist and that they have these concerns.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
Yeah, in many ways by his delivery and, you know, who he surrounded himself by and how he went to reach them, which is, you know, where they were at online. Interesting, interesting.
It's Been a Minute
The political power of Gen Z women
I think young women are going to remain pretty liberal. They moved so far to the left in such large numbers that I can't imagine them changing a lot. We have seen that approval for Trump is decreasing, and it's decreasing a little more for young men than for other groups of men in the polling that I've seen.