Politics reporter Casey Quinlan tells the New Republic that major news media and political leaders are “very concerned about white men holding onto their masculinity and status.” However, when women—especially women of color—struggle, it often gets dismissed as an “inevitable part” of how the system works under capitalism.
Quinlan points out that in analyzing how the economy has pushed young men to the right, political pundits and leaders on the left shouldn’t forget that young women and mothers of all ages have also been unhappy with the state of affordability in this country. There is no clear economic data showing that men are doing significantly worse while women are “thriving,” as some coverage suggests.
She acknowledges that men without a college degree have seen steeper declines in labor force participation, largely due to the decline in manufacturing and military jobs, compounded by mass incarceration and a rise in opioid use. Racism-fueled mass incarceration in the 1980s and 1990s hit Black men’s labor participation particularly hard.
“But it’s also true that labor force participation for men in total has rebounded a bit during stronger economic times,” said Quinlan. She adds that political leaders and the media “should be wary” of ignoring women or sidelining their issues while working to better communicate with young men on economic concerns.
“Women have already suffered under the economy Trump has helped build and are likely to continue to see major setbacks to their economic mobility,” Quinlan said. “They will be looking to Democrats to address it, and if they feel abandoned, it could derail the party’s goals.”
Celinda Lake, president of public opinion and political strategy firm Lake Research Partners, observed that young women who did not vote in the previous November elections were unhappy with Democrats. According to Lake, Harris did not draw enough of a contrast with Biden as a candidate, and many young women were unconvinced that the Democrats’ agenda was oriented toward their priorities.
A July report from Lake Research Partners found that among people who skipped voting in 2024, the top two economic issues affecting their decision not to vote for Harris were that she did not have a strong enough plan to reduce the cost of living and that her economic plans focused mostly on the middle class and homeowners rather than on poverty and inequality.
“We have problems with men and women, and we have to be dealing with both. Our biggest opportunity for the long term is with younger women,” Lake said. “We need to particularly improve our numbers with non-college-educated women and our turnout of young women.”
Lake also criticized Democrats for dropping ambitious childcare proposals from Biden’s landmark legislation last year, calling it “a huge mistake.” She added, “The party is really divided on this. There are people who are saying just let the Republicans hang themselves, just let them do bad and stay out of the way. But that’s a profoundly flawed strategy when your own favorability is down to 35 percent, and when people can’t follow what your agenda is and think you have the wrong priorities.”
https://www.alternet.org/republicans-childcare-democrats/