More than half of Democratic voters, 55 percent, think men are better off than women in the U.S. — but only a fifth of Republicans shared that view. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Politics Poll: Republicans see equality for women. Democrats don't.

Do men have it better than women in this country? It depends which party you ask, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

More than half of Democratic voters, 55 percent, think men are better off than women in the U.S. — but only a fifth of Republicans shared that view.


There’s a similar divide along gender lines over how the sexes are faring: Forty-four percent of female voters said men have a better life than they do, while just 5 percent said women have a better life. But a majority of men, 52 percent, think there's little difference between the genders: Just 28 percent said they have a better life than women, while 10 percent responded that women are better off.

The online poll, taken early this month among 1,933 registered voters, also suggests that reproductive rights for women is not a top-of-mind issue for many American voters.

The most pressing issues confronting women involved their treatment in the workplace. A combined 41 percent of respondents cited pay equity, job discrimination or workplace sexual harassment as the top concerns facing American women. Twenty-three percent pointed to sexual and domestic violence. Just 7 percent of respondents named reproductive rights as the top issue facing American women.

The rankings were similar among just female respondents across both parties.

The findings of the poll come on the heels of an election that saw a record number of women elected to Congress, the vast majority of them Democrats. The partisan disparity in new female members is reflected in the poll’s finding that Democrats are more likely to believe that men have a better life than women. The concerns about workplace discrimination and harassment are also seemingly a reflection of the times, mirroring both long-running concerns about pay disparities between the sexes, and the more recent raft of headlines about men behaving badly toward women on the job.

“Despite a deeply polarized electorate, women across the political spectrum are united on what they see as the biggest issues facing them,” said Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult’s vice president. “Roughly one-third of women (32 percent) — including 33 percent of Democratic women, 33 percent of independent women and 30 percent of GOP women — think pay equity and job discrimination are the most important issues facing females nationally.”

Women will also drive the upcoming race for the Democratic presidential nomination, making up roughly 60 percent of the primary and caucus electorate across the country. In the latest POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, 79 percent of Democratic women said they would prefer "a candidate who can heal the division in our country by bringing people with different views together to make compromises," versus 14 percent who would choose "a candidate who will fight back and is willing to break the rules to move the country in a different direction."

When it comes to women abroad, U.S. voters see a different, graver set of issues as most important. A combined majority rates human trafficking and sex slavery (26 percent) and sexual and domestic violence (26 percent). Pay equity and job discrimination (14 percent) is seen as less pressing for women outside the U.S., following by education accessibility (7 percent) and workplace sexual harassment (7 percent).

Nearly three-in-four U.S. voters, 74 percent, said women are better off in the U.S. than in the rest of the world, including 76 percent of men and 71 percent of women.

A majority of voters, 59 percent, said they expect women in the U.S. to be better off 10 years into the future — though men (65 percent) are more hopeful than women (54 percent). A quarter, 25 percent, said they expect things to be about the same for women in this country, while 5 percent expect women will be worse off in 10 years.

There’s less optimism for women abroad: 35 percent of U.S. voters said women around the world will be better off in 10 years than they are today, while 13 percent said they will be worse off and 35 percent said things will be about the same for women worldwide in 10 years.

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll was conducted March 1-3 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — Toplines: https://politi.co/2EVLmFJ | Crosstabs: https://politi.co/2XFRcCp