NJ men spooked by the thought of a woman as president, poll finds
In a head-to-head match with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton could easily win the male vote in New Jersey, a new poll finds.
All she has to do is make sure she doesn't remind them that she's a woman.
A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll out Wednesday finds that men and women have very different views on Clinton when changing gender roles is brought into the discussion.
The survey asked all respondents to pick either Clinton or Trump. But half of the poll's participants were first asked whether the women in their household earned more than the men, while the other half were not.
Men who were not asked this question wound up choosing Clinton over Trump, 49 to 33 percent.
But men who were made to think about the idea of women earning more than men ended up choosing Trump, 50 to 42.
The opposite was true among women who were polled. Clinton's lead over Trump jumped from 21 to 36 percent when the survey brought up the fact that in some households women earn more than men.
"Hillary Clinton, as the first woman to get a major party's nomination for president, represents a real new type of gender role threat to men," FDU political science professor Dan Cassino.
Cassino said the idea of “traditional masculine gender roles being filled by women” may make some men uncomfortable.
“Hillary Clinton has made a career out of upending traditional roles. One of her first public controversies was when she said that she didn’t want to stay home and bake cookies,” he said. “This is a symbol that they are losing power in society.”
Cassino said that to prove gender was the factor in the surveys, FDU also asked voters to pick between Bernie Sanders and Trump.
"Asking about gender does nothing to men's support of Bernie Sanders at all," Cassino said.
Sanders had a 16 percent lead over Trump when gender was not factored in, and a 14 percent lead when it was.
Overall, Clinton led the polls because New Jersey is a mostly Democrat state, but her 19 percent lead over Trump is cut to 11 percent when people are primed with gender role questions before being asked to vote.
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