The unexpected gender dynamic shaping the 2024 election

All signs suggest that the partisan divide over changing gender roles in society could widen even further in the 2024 election, adding a new source of uncertainty to a contest already on a knife’s edge.

Donald Trump’s recent declaration to female voters that “I will be your protector” offered the latest demonstration of the former president’s determination to consolidate the voters most committed to traditional gender roles and family structures – a culturally conservative group that includes not only many men but also a large number of women.

In the process, though, political strategists in both parties believe the GOP nominee risks further alienating the broad array of voters who are comfortable with the social changes that have challenged those traditional patterns of family life, especially women. Younger, college-educated and single women are likely to be particularly resistant to the idea that they need protecting by any man – much less one in Trump, who has been found liable for sexual abuse in a New York civil case and who faces specific allegations of sexual misconduct from dozens of other women.