Friday, February 05, 2010

What Do Republicans Believe About Sex Roles?

The Daily Kos commissioned a poll by non-partisan independent pollster Research 2000 of over 2,000 self-identified Republicans.

On the whole, these are quite conservative people. Take, for example, these answers:

Should same-sex couples be allowed to marry? No 77%

Do you consider abortion to be murder? Yes 76%

Should contraceptive use be outlawed? Yes 31%

Do you you believe that the only way for an individual to go to heaven is through Jesus Christ, or can one make it to heaven through another faith? Christ 67%


So it was particularly interesting to me to see the answers to these questions about men's and women's roles. The questions were

Should women work outside the home?

Are marriages equal partnerships, or are men the leaders of their households?

What do you think this group of Republicans will say?



Should women work outside the home? Yes 86%

Are marriages equal partnerships, or are men the leaders of their households? Equal 76%

I believe these core objectives of seventies feminism have been achieved.

10 comments:

ceemac said...

One possible flaw in the poll. It is my understaing that that conservatives of the Complementarian/Al Mohler/John Piper/Moscow, Idaho New St Andrews crowd/Quiverfull/Very Orthodox Catholic* types do not "self identify" as Republicans.

They may almost always vote for Republicans but they would not claim to be one. So they might not have been inlcuded in the survey.

That would have an impact on the numbers related to the role of women in workplace and home.

* I Recognize that I have lumped

Gruntled said...

What a wonderfully rich list of religious conservatives. Some are new to me.

And your point is right. Whether people self-identify with a party that they almost always vote with is an inexact business.

ceemac said...

I lumped a buch of folks together off the top of my head. There may be many differnces between them but from what I have read they all:
* embrace partriachy and are hostile to anything that remotely looks like feminism
* advocate very large familes with very traditional roles.
* Oppose contraception. Some even oppose Natural Family Planning

Check out the BaylyBlog. Run by a couple of PCA ministers deciated to figghting among other things what they believe is encroaching feminism in that denomination. (Yes the PCA has a right wing that thinks a left wing is leading it into apostasy.)

They have some interesting links like Touchstone magazine and Ladies Against Feminism.

Pat said...

Beau. The Daily Kos! How fair is that.

They had Scott Brown and Martha Coakley even on election night.

D- said...

Pat,

First, Research 2000, as a polling firm, has in most elections performed better than average amongst major firms.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/search/label/pollster%20ratings

Second, Coakley/Brown moved a lot in the last couple weeks (Note the election was on 1/19, and R2000poll saw an 8 point change from 1/12-13 poll to 1/15-1/17 poll)

http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2010/1/17/MA/429

Thirdly, and perhaps most notably for pollsters, the referenced C/B poll is amongst likely voters, always difficult to predict in a low turnout race (such as a special election) especially where there has been such a shift in which voters are motivated since the previous election. GOPers were motivated, Dems weren't.

Finally, the 1/15-1/17 poll had a +- of 4.5 points, and Brown (2 days after the last day of the poll) won by 5 points.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_special_election_in_Massachusetts,_2010#Polling

No poll or polling firm is perfect, but they are usually indicative of reality. Given research 2000's track record it would be wise to heed their poll #'s.

Anonymous said...

"The Daily Kos commissioned a poll by non-partisan independent pollster Research 2000."

That's like saying Rush Limbaugh or the Ed Show guy is non-partisan.

Gruntled said...

The Daily Kos is quite partisan, but they can certainly commission a reliable survey.

Anonymous said...

Maybe they can, but did they in this case? I don't know if they did or not and neither do you. One thing we both agree on is that Research 2000 in very partisan.

What did Democrats believe about sex roles?

Gruntled said...

I agree that the Daily Kos is very partisan. Research 2000 I have no reason to believe is biased in their sampling methods.

They were not hired to do a parallel study of Democrats. I would be interested to know, though.

SPWeston said...

On the left, there's a great interest in claiming that Republicans want Taliban-style patriarchy. It's remarkable how little support this poll provides for their fantasies.

I'd also add, on the issue of Kos-and-credibility, that the polling results on issues that get polled more often match up pretty well with other surveys. That adds to my sense that on gender roles, the right is not as different from the left as the left dearly wants to believe.