NEW POLL BY COSMOGIRL! MAGAZINE AND THE WHITE HOUSE PROJECT FINDS THAT NEXT GENERATION OF VOTERS IS READY FOR A WOMAN PRESIDENT
Poll Results Reveal Nearly 88% of Young Women and Men are Comfortable with a Woman in the White House
New York, NY (June 28, 2007) ― In a year when one of the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination is a woman, a CosmoGIRL!/White House Project poll finds that young women and men say they are ready for a woman president. In a new study, approximately 1,000 young women (98.4%) and men (1.6%) were asked questions about the upcoming presidential election and their views on the possibility of having a woman for president in 2008. Just over 90% of respondents say they believe in a woman’s ability to lead the country.
The White House Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to advance a diverse, critical mass of women into leadership in all sectors. “The results of our polls show that young women are more ready than ever for a woman at the top, but there are still hurdles to overcome due to a continued media emphasis on personal life, appearance and uncertainty about a woman’s ability to handle the military. However, as more women enter the pipeline, we will dispel those myths,” said Marie Wilson, President, The White House Project.
“As the election draws near, it is important for us at CosmoGIRL! to uncover the views of our readers,” says CosmoGIRL! Editor-in-Chief Susan Schulz. “It is essential to remember that the teens and young adults of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Teaming up with The White House Project to conduct this poll helps us keep our finger on the pulse of our readers. It also helps us equip them with the information they need to understand this next election, which will have a more far-reaching effect on this generation than perhaps on any other.”
Following are highlights from the study:
- Comfort Level: The young voters of today and the future are very to somewhat comfortable with a woman being president (88%), and 73% say they are ready for a woman president.
- Readiness: Half say that the country will be ready to elect a woman as president within the next 5 years.
- Pressure: 98% think there will be pressure on the first woman president to prove a woman can do the job.
- Voting: If a woman is on the presidential ballot, 69% would be more likely to vote on Election Day, yet 69% would vote for who they find to be the best candidate, regardless of gender.
- Support of a Candidate: When asked what the most important factor is in choosing which candidate they would support, 63% say it is most important that the next president supports issues that the voter cares about, and similar morals and values came in second at 31%.
- Trust: Over 90% trust a woman’s ability to lead the country and 83% believe that a woman can balance being the president of the United States while raising children; while slightly fewer, 72%, believe that a man can balance the same two jobs.
- Future Goals: When asked about personal future goals, 61% want to balance a career and raise a family, while 37% hope to go as far as they can in their career, and only 3% hope to stay at home with their children.
- Hair, Hemlines and Husbands: About half (56%) think voters will care more about a female president’s personal life and dating history than they do about a man’s, and 50% think appearance plays a more important role for female candidates than male candidates (38% think appearance holds the same importance for men and women).
- Issues: When it comes to military issues, 37.4% feel a female president will touch on military issues in the same way a man will, while 45.6% are not sure, and 62.4% do not think women are too emotional to be leaders. Rather, they feel that being more emotional makes women more compassionate.
CosmoGIRL! empowers and inspires young women to be leaders in all aspects of their lives. From setting the latest trends to standing up for what they believe in, our readers were Born To Lead. CosmoGIRL! publishes ten issues annually, CosmoGIRL! Prom, and its online counterparts www.cosmogirl.com and CosmoGIRL! Mobile (m.cosmogirl.com), offers tech-savvy readers more opportunities than ever before to interact with the magazine. The magazine is published by Hearst Magazines, a unit of Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com) and one of the world’s largest publishers of monthly magazines, with a total of 19 U.S. titles and nearly 200 international editions. Hearst reaches more adults than any other publisher of monthly magazines (74.1 million total adults according to MRI, 2007). The company also publishes 20 magazines in the United Kingdom through its wholly owned subsidiary, The National Magazine Company Limited.
The White House Project, a national, nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization (501c3), aims to advance women’s leadership in all communities and sectors, up to the U.S. presidency. By filling the leadership pipeline with a richly diverse, critical mass of women, we make American institutions, businesses and government truly representative. Through multi-platform programs, The White House Project creates a culture where America’s most valuable untapped resource—women—can succeed in all realms (www.thewhitehouseproject.org).
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