Hillary Clinton Retains Strong Appeal to American Women.
Byline: Jeffrey M. Jones
Synopsis: American women have a much more positive opinion of Hillary Clinton than men do. Women, and specifically Democratic women, rate her better than they do any other potential 2016 presidential candidate.
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Women continue to have a much more positive opinion of Hillary Clinton than men do. Fifty-six percent of women have a favorable opinion of Clinton, while 32% view her unfavorably. Men are evenly divided in their opinions of Clinton.
The results are based on a March 2-4 Gallup poll, conducted as revelations about her use of a private email account to conduct government business were emerging, but before she publicly addressed the issue. Clinton is expected to officially announce her presidential candidacy for the 2016 election next month. Her combination of high familiarity among the general public and more positive than negative favorable ratings puts her in a more advantageous early position regarding her image than any of her potential 2016 rivals.
Clinton owes much of her strong early position among possible 2016 candidates to her appeal to women. This gender difference in her image ratings is not new; Gallup has previously documented wide gender gaps in views of Clinton while she was first lady, U.S. senator, a presidential candidate in 2008, and most recently, secretary of state.
Not only is there a gender gap in Clinton's overall favorable rating, but all major female demographic groups view Clinton more positively than do their male counterparts, including by age, education, race, marital status and partisanship. In nearly every comparison, Clinton's favorable rating is 10 percentage points higher for women than men in the same subgroup. Her net favorable rating -- the percentage who views her positively minus the percentage who views her negatively -- is typically 20 points higher for women than for men who share the same characteristic.
Aside from Republican women, each of these groups of women views Clinton more positively than negatively. But her image is more positive among younger women than older women, among unmarried women than married women, and among nonwhite women than white women, largely reflecting broad partisan differences by subgroup in the U.S. There is only a modest difference in how female college graduates and non-graduates view Clinton.
Women Most Positive Toward Clinton in Potential 2016 Field
Among all major potential 2016 presidential candidates from...
To continue reading
Request your trial