Today, in advance of the third presidential debate, LeanIn.Org released research that shows voters are ready for a woman president, we just don’t know it yet.  According to their findings, “we just need to set aside the false belief that America isn’t ready and outdated notions of what it means to be ‘presidential’ and ‘electable.’”

Lean In’s original research is the latest effort to highlight gender dynamics in the 2020 election and help voters focus on what really matters—candidates’ ideas and experience.

Here’s what they found:

According to Lean In, the two main predictors of whether Democratic and Independent voters plan to vote for a woman or a man in the Democratic primary are how “presidential” and “electable” they perceive the candidates to be—ideas rooted in stereotypes that tend to favor men and disadvantage women. And when voters don’t think America is ready for a woman president—a false belief held by many voters—they are less likely to vote for a woman themselves.

In reality, American is ready. Across all demographic groups, a majority of voters say they are “very ready” or “extremely ready” for a woman president, and voters are far more enthusiastic about voting for a woman when they think other Americans are ready too. Moreover, their analysis shows that if you take “presidential” and “electable” out of the equation, the women and men front-runners would be neck and neck in the Democratic primary.

These findings go hand-in-hand with our recent research, What Does Electability Mean to Voters?, which found that 8 in 10 voters reject the idea that the country isn’t ready to elect a female president, and agree that we can’t predict what types of candidates are actually “electable.”

Lean In is also releasing an interactive tool called “Hear That? Say This” that recommends what to say when you hear biased reactions to women candidates like, “I just don’t think a woman can win” or “I just don’t like her.”

 

For more information about Lean In’s research and #GetOutTheBias initiative, head over to  leanin.org/2020.