Millennial women, more than others, think men have it easier

[downtoearth]

Millennial Women, More Than Older Women, Think Men Have It Easier

When it comes to the gender divide, Americans are, well, divided. A survey out Wednesday shows wide divergences along partisan, educational and generational lines in perceptions of how women are doing in the country.

Pew asked two key questions to gather a sense of how Americans feel about gender equality in the U.S: Has the country gone far enough in giving women equal rights, and do men or women have it easier these days? Although half of all respondents said the U.S. hasn’t done enough when it comes to equality, the perception fractures along party lines.

A majority of Democrats (69 percent) expressed dissatisfaction with the progress the U.S. has made toward equality, while only 26 percent of Republicans felt the same way, and 54 percent of Republicans said the country’s progress has been about right. Only 10 percent of all Americans said the country has actually gone too far in giving women equal rights. But 18 percent of Republican respondents said the U.S. has gone too far, while 4 percent of Democrats said the same. Women in both parties were more likely than men to say enough hasn’t been done, but only a small share of Republican women (33 percent) thought this was the case, compared with 74 percent of Democratic women.

According to Pew’s research, younger women are more likely to describe men as having advantages over women. Fifty-two percent of millennial women said men have it easier than women in the U.S. today, while majorities of women in all other generations said there was no difference between the genders. On the question of whether women have benefited from changes in gender roles, more millennial men (61 percent) said women have benefited from these changes than did women (48 percent), but this gap in men’s and women’s perception doesn’t exist among older generations.

fivethirtyeight.com/features/millennial-women-more-than-older-women-think-men-have-it-easier/

[hopecounts]

Not shocked.
My Mom is always saying ‘why do you MAKE (emphasis mine) [DH] do so much he works hard all day’
It’s not like he does that much, bedtime and lunch on alternating nights, he puts away his clean clothes that I wash and occasionally, like once or twice a month, he cooks.
It drives me crazy

[macmars45]

Not a bit surprised.

My mom is quick to say my H 'helps me when he can'. Heck no; he's a member of our household and pulls his weight as such!

[goldengirlz]

“Only 10 percent of all Americans said the country has actually gone too far in giving women equal rights.”

How is that an “only” sentence?

[isabel]

Oct 25, 2017 21:29:15 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

“Only 10 percent of all Americans said the country has actually gone too far in giving women equal rights.”

How is that an “only” sentence?

And how can you go too far in providing EQUAL rights!?

[lilibet]

Seriously fuck that 10 percent.

Count me in the men have it easier camp. I was passed over for a promotion because the dude they picked had "leadership experience" - he led a Bible study group at church. I had more seniority, a degree, more diverse knowledge/experience in the work our office does which fit with the training the role was responsible for, oh and he was also on an action plan because he was messing up so much. And yet they promoted him. And he was awful in the role.

[sugarglider]

Older generations probably look at millennial women, see that we are represented and seemingly respected in the workplace, see the progress and focus on that.

Meanwhile, millennial women are looking at our role models and thinking (1) f*ck, there are so few women at the top of my field, and (2) those who are either are single or exhausted. And that's in part because as much as we have more opportunities at work, we (not me personally but women generally) do more at home, too.

Also, I've thought about his in terms of relationships, by just generally, too, when I look at my female friends, they are all so much more badass (successful entrepreneurs, highly credentialed scholars and professionals, multitalented in several disciplines, etc. all on top of having awesome personalities) than my male friends. I don't know why that is.

[lightbulbsun]

Oct 25, 2017 20:46:46 GMT -5 macmars45 said:

Not a bit surprised.

My mom is quick to say my H 'helps me when he can'. Heck no; he's a member of our household and pulls his weight as such!

This is my grandma.  She is SHOCKED that H does all the laundry in our house.  Well, we both work full time so we've divided household chores, and that is his.  But for some reason she thinks I should be doing all the housework/cooking. 

The most annoying thing is the assumption that even though we both have engineering degrees from the same university, and work similar jobs with comparable stress, that his job and his time is inherently more important than mine.  

[goldengirlz]

Oct 26, 2017 6:32:13 GMT -5 sugarglider said:

Older generations probably look at millennial women, see that we are represented and seemingly respected in the workplace, see the progress and focus on that.

Meanwhile, millennial women are looking at our role models and thinking (1) f*ck, there are so few women at the top of my field, and (2) those who are either are single or exhausted. And that's in part because as much as we have more opportunities at work, we (not me personally but women generally) do more at home, too.

Also, I've thought about his in terms of relationships, by just generally, too, when I look at my female friends, they are all so much more badass (successful entrepreneurs, highly credentialed scholars and professionals, multitalented in several disciplines, etc. all on top of having awesome personalities) than my male friends. I don't know why that is.

Your second paragraph is spot on, but especially the lack of role models.

Re: your last point: In my friend group, it’s still the opposite. My badass female friends have started to scale back their careers to support their husband’s, especially once the kids came along. Not sure what will happen once they’re past the baby years though.

[iamlaila]

I followed the link to more detailed analysis at the Pew website: www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/10/18/wide-partisan-gaps-in-u-s-over-how-far-the-country-has-come-on-gender-equality/

I like that they dug deeper to ask the respondents to elaborate on why they feel men/women have it easier. (They also have a sample of specific quotes in the article.)

Among those who say men have it easier: “43% specifically mention that men are paid more than women and 29% cite greater employment opportunities or preferential treatment for men. About one-in-ten or fewer say men have fewer family or household responsibilities (10%), get more respect (9%), have more political power (9%), have better health care (7%), don’t experience sexual harassment to the same extent as women (4%) or don’t have to worry as much about their physical safety (4%).”

Among those who say women have it easier: “About one-in-ten or fewer say laws or the courts favor women (9%), women are always believed when they make accusations of sexism, sexual harassment or sexual assault (8%), men aren’t respected or are portrayed unfairly in the media (5%), women have more choices when it comes to work and family (5%), women have more access to government assistance (4%), or women have more educational opportunities (3%). (Due to small sample sizes, it is not possible to analyze responses across demographic or partisan groups.)”

[OscarQ]

WTF fellow Gen Xers? We’re of the same opinion as the Boomers? I just can’t even. No! Men do not have it harder.

I’m really surprised by that because my rose colored glasses on this issue have really fallen off in the past few years as I look around and go “Oh, so this is it for me career wise...ok” and meanwhile H still has a good 15 years before he starts bumping into age discrimination.

I’d be interested in seeing this redone in a few years because I think the millennial date a leading indicator on this opinion and I hope the rest of us catch up. Quickly.

[pinkdutchtulips]

Gen X'er here whose Boomer mom was as always apppalled at how little my now xh did and much I did in addition to working FT ...

Needless to say ... hubs/partner #2 will have to be more hands on than #1 .. for my sanity