What’s Motivating Women This Election Cycle?

Hint: It's Not Abortion.

Jul 16, 2024

It is impossible to predict how the upcoming election cycle will end. There’s been a lot of speculation and number crunching, but I am not sure we can call it with any degree of certainty. The last couple of weeks have been dizzying. My head has been on swivel, trying to keep up with the polls, the latest predictions, and the high drama that has consumed both parties and the public.

What’s true is that women will continue to play a deciding role in electing the next president. Since 1980, women have registered and voted at higher rates than men in every presidential election, with the turnout gap between women and men growing slightly more significant with each successive presidential election.

As both parties head into their respective conventions, I wanted to explore what’s motivating women this election cycle. Is it abortion? Is it inflation, threats to democracy, or the war in Gaza?

Do women care who will be the next President of the United States? Will more women than in previous years sit this election out?

Motivation is High Among Women this Election Cycle

Women remain motivated this election cycle, with more than 50 percent looking forward to casting their ballots. Only 1 in 5 women say they are uninterested in the election.

Republican women feel enthusiastic (42%) and hopeful (65%) about the upcoming election compared to Democratic women, with only 29 percent feeling enthusiastic and 51 percent feeling hopeful.

Independent women voters are the least enthusiastic (22%) and hopeful (35%) among all women voters. They are also the biggest group of women who are least interested in this election cycle. Yikes!

Women who voted for Biden in 2020 are slightly less motivated this election cycle than women who voted for Trump in 2020.

Rising Household Expenses & Threats to Democracy Top the List of Issues Driving Women to the Polls this Election Cycle.

Across race, age, and political affiliation, rising household expenses (inflation) and threats to democracy are the top issues driving women to the polls this election cycle. While access to abortion is still among the top concerns for women, it is outranked by inflation and threats to democracy.

Over 50 percent of Black and Hispanic women rank inflation as their top issue, followed by threats to democracy. Abortion ranked third and fourth on their list of priorities, respectively.

The high cost of living is also the top issue for women of reproductive age, followed by abortion and threats to democracy.

Inflation as the top issue for women makes sense. In households, women are primarily responsible for managing the budget, purchasing groceries, and paying bills. When costs rise, we feel it first.

Will Abortion Still Drive Women to the Polls this Upcoming Election?

In recent elections, the issue of Abortion has driven women to the polls to vote to enshrine reproductive rights and freedom in the state constitutions or to beat back regressive ballot initiatives and legislation. The same will be true in 2024.

Half of Republican women who believe abortion should be illegal (about two-thirds) say they are more motivated to cast a ballot in the upcoming Presidential election than in previous cycles. Only 15 percent say they are less motivated.

Forty-four percent of Democratic women say they are more motivated to cast a ballot in the upcoming election because of abortion and reproductive rights than in previous elections. Almost one-quarter of voters say they are less motivated.

Do women believe they have it harder in society compared to men?

Women’s views on their progress and the barriers they face in society are shaped by their political affiliation and voting behavior. Women are nearly evenly split on whether or not the barriers to women’s advancement have disappeared.

Forty-eight percent of women say the barriers to their advancement have disappeared, and 51 percent say they have not.

Seventy percent of conservative women and those who voted for Trump in the past were more likely to believe barriers for women that make it harder for them to get ahead are largely gone. They were also more likely to think women’s gains in society came at the expense of men.

A nearly equal amount, 73 percent, of progressive women voters and those who voted for Biden in the last election say there are still significant barriers to women’s progress that make it difficult for them to get ahead.

High Levels of Frustration and Anxiety Among Women Voters Threaten Turnout.

It is safe to say this election cycle is wearing us out. About 70 percent of women voters feel frustrated and anxious about the upcoming election. Democratic women capture the largest share of those feeling frustrated (71 percent) and anxious (72 percent).

Independents and Republican women express similar levels of frustration and anxiety with the upcoming election at about 68 percent.

Do Women Care if the Next President is a Convicted Felon?

It depends on which woman you ask. Overall, 54 percent of women say the personal characteristics or behavior of the candidate will make the most significant difference in terms of their choice of president. Thirty-eight percent say the candidate’s stance on issues is the most important.

However, women who plan to vote for Trump in the upcoming election are more likely to vote for a presidential candidate based on their stance on a political issue (50 %) than personal characteristics or behavior (40%).

Women who plan to vote for Biden in 2024 say personal characteristics or behavior, 66 percent, trumps (no pun intended) a candidate’s stance on a political issue, 27 percent.

Only about 10 percent of women say they will vote for President based on political affiliation.

He’s Our Guy: Majority of Women say they will Vote for the Same Presidential Candidate they Voted for in 2020

A lot has happened since 2016—a pandemic, an attempted coup, numerous convictions, record high unemployment, and record low unemployment—and most women plan to vote for the same presidential candidate they voted for in 2020.

Ninety-two percent of women who voted for Donald Trump in the last election plan to vote for him again, and 83 percent of Biden voters plan to do the same.

Here are my top three takeaways in terms of the upcoming election and what is motivating women voters

Issues matter. Women do care about abortion rights, AND they also care about the economy, inflation, threats to democracy, immigration, gun rights, and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. We must get better at talking about all these things simultaneously with and to women.
Yes, the economy may be thriving as measured by low unemployment, the stock market, and GDP, but for women and families, if the cost of everything in their lives is up and they feel the squeeze, saying we have a good economy feels like gas lighting.
We need to Block and Build. I can’t take credit for this strategy, but I believe it is good and this moment calls for it. By block and build, I mean we need to use our voting power and political will to block authoritarianism and threats to democracy so we can begin to build for the future. This is one of the most consequential elections of our lifetimes.
Women’s minds are pretty much made up. I am one of those women whose minds cannot be changed—what can I say? However, there is a tiny sliver, less than 10 percent, of women whose vote will tip the election. Let’s engage them. They’re not just Republican women either—They are younger women, women who want the war in Gaza to end, women who are burdened by student loan debt, and women who don’t feel valued or seen in our political system—let’s find them, link arms, and show them what’s at stake.
Choose Your Motivation, and Let it Drive You to the Polls. There’s a lot of uncertainty and unknowns in the upcoming election. Whatever motivates you, whether it’s your family, your children’s future, the economy, law and order, reproductive rights, a love of democracy, equality, the fear of Project 2025, civil or human rights, keeping a certain candidate out of office, let it drive you to the polls. We have to be all in.

Tell me: What do you think? What’s motivating you this election cycle?