r e s m a r t e d

poll: gender equality still a long way off

It’s more than a generation since a cigarette ad declared to women, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” But a Harris Poll, released this week, suggests women feel they’ve still got a long way to go — with many men endorsing that opinion.

One question in the survey (conducted in June) asked whether respondents agree with the statement, “The U.S. still has a long way to go to reach complete gender equality.” Overall, 30 percent agreed “strongly” and 34 percent “somewhat,” while 21 percent disagreed “somewhat” and 11 percent “strongly.” (The rest were unsure.) As you might guess, women were more likely than men to agree with the statement (74 percent vs. 52 percent). There was a good deal of variation among age groups, with the 65-plusers the most likely to agree there’s a long way to go to reach gender equality (71 percent) and the 34-45-year-olds the least likely (55 percent).

The survey’s respondents (especially its women) see tangible manifestations of gender inequality. Most notably, 69 percent of all respondents (including 80 percent of women) agreed that “Women often do not receive the same pay as men for doing exactly the same job.” Similarly, 62 percent of respondents (including 75 percent of women) agreed that “Women are often discriminated against in being promoted for supervisory and executive jobs.” Fifty-one percent of women (and 33 percent of men) agreed that “Women often have much more trouble than men in getting credit, bank loans and mortgages.”

If women suffer the downside of different treatment, they don’t necessarily benefit from an upside. Eighty-one percent of respondents agreed (including 36 percent agreeing “strongly”) that “Women today are treated with less chivalry than in the past.”

Another part of the survey inquired into attitudes about relations between the sexes these days, and the findings were strikingly downbeat. While 43 percent agreed (13 percent strongly) that “Things are fine the way they are between men and women,” 52 percent disagreed (19 percent strongly). Women were markedly less likely than men (32 percent vs. 55 percent) to agree that things are fine between the sexes.

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