Read the memo here and the press release here.

POLITICO’s Elena Schneider reported on the findings in the news story, “Trump losing ground with women on economy, poll shows.”

Register for the virtual discussion of “She Votes 2024: From Issues to Impact” on Wednesday, October 9th at 6pm with Amanda Hunter, Lindsay Vermeyen, Elena Schneider, and Betsy Fischer Martin here.

As American women begin to cast their votes in the 2024 November election, our new Gender on the Ballot poll, conducted by BSG, explores the issues shaping women voters and their political opinions leading up to the 2024 elections.

Key Takeaways

Women voters are more engaged and tuned into politics.

• Nearly half of women say this will be the most important election of their lifetime, and over 8 in 10 think this election will be more important than most (a significant increase from 2023).
• With breaking news seemingly constant, engagement numbers are up across the board, particularly among older, Democratic women and those with grown children.
• Similar to 2023, the plurality of women who don’t talk politics frequently cite lack of interest, but 1 in 3 say it’s too confrontational.
• While most avoid discussing politics online, liberals and young voters are more likely to engage with strangers; Overall, women find the conversations highly motivating.
• About half of women in serious relationships are in a “mixed household” when it comes to political ideology – which means there are sometimes disagreements on issues.

With Vice President Harris in the spotlight, her favorability has jumped with women nationally, from 43% favorable in 2023 to 55% favorable in 2024.

• Independent women have increased their opinions of the Vice President by 23 points – 51% of Independent women are favorable, while 38% are unfavorable.

Vice President Harris has a 15-point lead over former President Trump with women nationally, and women believe Harris will win by the same margin.

• Women open to voting for Harris cite her values and plans for the future, while women open to Trump think he is more capable and would be better for their financial situation.
• Independent women are voting for Harris by a margin of 18 points.

Women trust the Democratic ticket to address their top issue of inflation and bringing down the cost of living.

• Women trust Harris and Walz more on top issues such as abortion and inflation, though their advantage shrinks on immigration.
• Harris and Walz are more trusted across the board to look out for voters – though skepticism about politicians creeps in to hold them below a majority on truthfulness.
• Women resoundingly disapprove of Trump’s leadership style, though 1 in 4 younger voters and parents with young kids still support his policies.
• While a majority think Trump and Vance’s comments about women are offensive, a sizeable chunk think it’s overblown – showing continued resilience from verbal gaffes.

While inflation has contributed to making women’s personal financial situations feel worse than ever, the hope they feel in this election year has driven up optimism about the economy overall. 

• More than half of women are optimistic about the U.S. economy over the next 12 months – compared to just 40% of women last year.

There is also a lot of excitement about electing America’s first female president.

• An overwhelming majority of voters think it’s important to elect more women to political office.
• A strong majority also insist the country is more open to a woman president than 8 years ago when Hillary Clinton ran – yet 4 in 10 voters either know someone or they themselves would not vote for a woman president underscoring the difficulty in breaking through the glass ceiling.

American women remain concerned about reproductive rights, and it is one of the most important issue for them this election cycle. 

• Despite recent attacks on reproductive rights, including abortion, birth control and IVF, voters are strongly supportive of ensuring access to anyone who needs it.
• The vast majority of women who were polled personally support the right to an abortion and believe it should be legal in all or most cases (67%) and want elected officials to make abortion more accessible (70%).
• Women continue to overwhelmingly believe abortion should be legal in at least most cases, and Republican women’s views have softened.
• Among most major demographic groups, a majority of women find abortion to be a highly motivating issue to get to the polls in November.

Benenson Strategy Group conducted 829 online interviews nationwide from September 20-24, 2024 among women who are registered voters. The margin of error for the dataset overall is +/- 3.4% at the 95% confidence level and is higher among subgroups. Due to rounding, some percentages may not add up to 100%.