Polls show trouble for Trump ahead of Women's march on Washington
With massive crowds expected for the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday and additional protests and rallies planned in cities across the country, the latest CBS News Poll finds women are less optimistic than men about Donald Trump in the White House.
Moreover, many women are concerned about how the policies of his administration will impact them directly.
There is a greater divide between men and women on expectations for a Trump presidency than for any president going back to Ronald Reagan in 1981 – the earliest point for which CBS News polling data is available. Sixty-two percent of men are optimistic about the next four years with Donald Trump as President, compared to just 50 percent of women - the lowest for any president-elect going back nearly four decades.
Historically, women have largely supported Democratic candidates for president, and they did so in 2016 as well. Nationwide, Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Republican Donald Trump by 13 points among women, while men supported Mr. Trump by 11 points – the largest gender gap going back to 1972 when exit polls were first conducted.
Donald Trump did win the support of white women, particularly those without a college degree. A majority of white women (53 percent) are optimistic about his presidency. Meanwhile, only 38 percent of non-white women say they are optimistic, while 49 percent of them are pessimistic.
Throughout the election campaign, women overall held largely negative views of Mr. Trump and they continue to do so – only 26 percent now view him favorably. During the campaign a video was released of Mr. Trump talking about making sexual advances toward women. In a CBS News/New York Times Poll conducted shortly after that, 59 percent of women voters said Trump has not much or no respect at all for women.
There was a partisan divide, however. Eight in 10 Republican women felt Trump respected women a lot or some, while 86 percent of Democratic women said he did so not much or not at all.
Looking ahead, women have some reservations about the policies Mr. Trump will put forward as president. Fifty-one percent of women think those policies will hurt them, while just 24 percent think they will be beneficial to women. Younger women and women of color are particularly likely to think women will be hurt by Mr. Trump’s policies.
While more than half of women have some concerns about how Mr. Trump’s policies may impact them, they hold some positive views. Fifty-three percent of women are very or somewhat confident that Mr. Trump will make the right decisions about the economy and nearly six in 10 think will keep U.S. jobs from going overseas, a central issue in his campaign.
As for the man who just left the White House, women (who are more likely to identify as Democrat than Republican) give him high marks. Sixty-six percent of women approve of the job Barack Obama has done as president over the last eight years; just a third disapproves.
