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Study: More Female College Students Than Ever Identify As Liberal

时间:2017-06-04 23:12:01

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(单词翻译)

 

The victory of Donald Trump1 in the 2016 presidential election came as a surprise to many people in the United States.

Most political observers predicted Trump would lose the election to Hillary Clinton. But he won, in large part because of older male voters.

However, other groups did not share in that support. One of them was American college students, mostly female students.

In fact, a new study found that more first-year female students at U.S. colleges and universities now identify themselves as liberal than ever before. It also suggests the difference in the number of all first-year female and male students identifying as liberal is the biggest ever measured.

The study comes from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, the University of California in Los Angeles.

Researchers launched the study in 1966. They ask first-time, full-time2 students at four-year colleges and universities around the country about different subjects. Last year, the study gathered information from over 137,000 students at 184 different schools.

One of the subjects the study asks about is U.S. politics. The study asks college students to identify themselves politically in one of five groupings. They are liberal; extreme liberal or “far left”; conservative; extreme conservative or “far right”; and moderate or “middle of the road.” Since the beginning of the study, moderate students have always been, and still are, the largest group.

But in 2016, 41.1 percent of the female students in the study identified themselves as liberal or far left. This is the largest percentage of young women identifying as liberal in the over 50 year history of the study. By comparison, just 28.9 percent of males identified their political thinking as liberal or far left.

Around 27 percent of male students and about 18 percent of female students identified themselves as conservative or far right.

Why the difference?

Kevin Eagan is an assistant professor at UCLA. He also is the managing director of the Higher Education Research Institute. He says the number of female college students identifying as liberal has been rising since the 1990s.

There have been periods when male students were more liberal than females, such as during the 1960s and 1970s. But Eagan notes the number of young people identifying with one party over another has a lot to do with the politicians who represent those parties.

For example, the Republican Party chose former California governor Ronald Reagan as its presidential candidate in 1980. Reagan was elected and served eight years in the White House. Information collected during that period showed large decreases in the number of liberal college students.

Kevin Eagan believes that many young women likely identified with Hillary Clinton last year because she was a woman. Clinton was the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, which has supported more liberal policies in recent years than the Republicans.

Eagan says Trump also likely pushed women to the left through his actions and statements about women. For example, during the 2016 election campaign, news media uncovered a recording4 of Trump from several years earlier. In the recording, he made jokes about inappropriate contact with woman. Several other women came forward and accused him of sexual wrongdoing. Trump and his campaign denied the sexual misconduct claims.

"With a candidate last year on the Republican side who was characterized by the media, perhaps rightfully so, as misogynistic5 and not really supportive of women … I think that that just served to exacerbate6 this trend that we’re seeing related to women … shifting their political perspectives."

But college student Nesha Ruther says she does not identify as liberal simply because the more liberal presidential candidate was a woman. Ruther is from Takoma Park, Maryland. She began taking classes at the University of Wisconsin in 2016. She is a registered Democrat3.

Ruther wanted Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to serve as the party’s candidate last November. She says she did so because of his support of issues like ending police violence against African Americans and raising taxes on the wealthy.

After Sanders lost the nomination7 to Clinton, Ruther grew concerned about Trump’s calls to limit public money for healthcare services that mainly serve women. She also opposed his calls to restrict medical operations for ending a pregnancy8. So the Maryland woman supported Clinton’s candidacy.

Ruther argues that many women choose to identify as liberal because of their position on issues that most affect them. This includes making sure women are paid the same as men for the same work, and that women should be included in making decisions on rules affecting reproductive health.

"In this day and age, liberalism … is more appealing to women because it is a movement that is for progress. So it’s not the way things have been previously9, and in that way it is more geared towards the empowerment of women, the increased social mobility10 of women."

Changes over time

Hans Noel teaches political science at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He notes that liberals are not the majority among American women.

In fact, the Washington Post newspaper reported that 61 percent of white women without a college degree voted for Trump. But many more young women in recent years identify themselves as feminists12 and support politicians who support women’s rights.

Noel says the political right in the U.S. has grown increasingly conservative, especially on issues like access to birth control. And the political left has grown more feminist11.

"What it means to be liberal, conservative, what it means to be Democratic or Republican, it evolves and changes. And it’s not like that suddenly being liberal has been pro-feminist, suddenly. That’s been around for a while. But that certainly has been a highlighted issue in the last several years, and particularly the last election."

Noel adds that colleges and universities are often places that support more liberal ways of thinking. And it is almost natural that young women would side with whatever political movement they feel most supports their needs.

But he says the most important thing to consider is not their political opinions, but whether or not younger Americans will vote in elections. People between 18 and 35 years old represent 31 percent of the voters nationwide. But only about half of them voted in 2016.

Words in This Story

inappropriate – adj. not right or suited for some purpose or situation

misconduct – n. behavior or activity that is illegal or morally wrong

characterize(d) – v. to describe the character or special qualities of someone or something

misogynistic – adj. the quality a man who hates women

exacerbate – v. to make a situation or problem more intense

trend – n. a general direction of change

shift(ing) – v. to change or to cause something to change to a different opinion or belief

perspective(s) – n. a way of thinking about and understanding something

geared toward (s) – p.v. to make something a match for a particular use or type of person

social mobility – n. the movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories of people within or between different levels of power, privilege, opportunity or wealth in a group of people in general thought of as living together in organized communities with shared laws, traditions, and values

feminist(s) – n. a person who believes the that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities

highlight(ed) – v. to make or try to make people notice or be aware of someone or something


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 trump LU1zK     
n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭
参考例句:
  • He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
  • The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手,作为他的王牌。
2 full-time SsBz42     
adj.满工作日的或工作周的,全时间的
参考例句:
  • A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
  • I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作,我不知道她是如何对付的。
3 democrat Xmkzf     
n.民主主义者,民主人士;民主党党员
参考例句:
  • The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
  • About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后,他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。
4 recording UktzJj     
n.录音,记录
参考例句:
  • How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间?
  • I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
5 misogynistic 3f0b942dbbce064c8f7d66628418d140     
参考例句:
  • And it brings out everything that is most noxious and misogynistic about the right. 而且,这种情绪也流露出右派思想中最为保守有害,歧视女性的那一面。 来自互联网
6 exacerbate iiAzU     
v.恶化,增剧,激怒,使加剧
参考例句:
  • WMO says a warming climate can exacerbate air pollution.世界气象组织说,气候变暖可能会加剧空气污染。
  • In fact efforts will merely exacerbate the current problem.实际上努力只会加剧当前的问题。
7 nomination BHMxw     
n.提名,任命,提名权
参考例句:
  • John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
  • Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。
8 pregnancy lPwxP     
n.怀孕,怀孕期
参考例句:
  • Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
  • Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。
9 previously bkzzzC     
adv.以前,先前(地)
参考例句:
  • The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
  • Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿,解释原先发生了什么。
10 mobility H6rzu     
n.可动性,变动性,情感不定
参考例句:
  • The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
  • Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。
11 feminist mliyh     
adj.主张男女平等的,女权主义的
参考例句:
  • She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
  • From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起,男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。
12 feminists ef6993909ee3f0b8d1e79a268168539d     
n.男女平等主义者,女权扩张论者( feminist的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Only 16 percent of young women in a 1990 survey considered themselves feminists. 在1990年的一项调查中,只有16%的年轻女性认为自己是女权主义者。 来自辞典例句
  • The organization had many enemies, most notably among feminists. 这个组织有许多敌人,特别是在男女平等主义者中。 来自辞典例句

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