The Political Gender Divide is Making Dating More Difficult - Rob Horowitz

The Political Gender Divide is Making Dating More Difficult - Rob Horowitz

The strong feelings that Donald Trump evokes, as well as the diverging opinions of single women and men on the topic, have made an already difficult dating environment even trickier to navigate.  This is one of the major findings of a new report from the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Survey Center on American Life, entitled “Romantic Recession: How Politics, Pessimism, and Anxiety Shape American Courtship.”

 

Political differences playing more of a role in our personal and family lives are a consequence of the stepped-up polarization in the nation, and did not begin with Donald Trump. In terms of dating, however, his reelection in 2024 has supercharged it, according to the Survey Center for American Life. One of the reasons is there was a wide gender gap among singles in the 2024 election; only 39% of single women supported Donald Trump, as opposed to 53% of single men.  To many singles, a difference of opinion about Mr. Trump is close to a dating deal breaker, finds the survey center.

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This is especially pronounced among single women. “Nearly three in four (74 percent) single women who voted for Harris,” for example, “say they would be a lot less inclined to date a Trump supporter,” reported the survey center.  On the other hand, “nearly four in 10 (39 percent) single men say they would be less likely to consider dating a feminist.”

 

For those women who are reluctant to date a Trump supporter, an oft-expressed reason is that support for the president demonstrates an unacceptable level of tolerance for his derogatory comments about women and his history of mistreating them, the report documents. For many single women, it signals more than a simple political disagreement. “It is no longer a political difference; it is a difference in morals,” one single woman respondent told a survey interviewer.

 

This political gender divide adds to an already unappetizing stew for singles in the dating market. People find online dating--the main way people connect these days--generally unsatisfactory, contributing to pessimism about dating and finding a partner “Close to half (46 percent) of people who use online dating sites or dating apps report that the experience has made them feel more pessimistic about dating," the report documents."Seventeen percent of users say the experience has made them feel optimistic, and 36 percent say they feel neither optimistic nor pessimistic.”

 

For women, online dating is increasingly viewed as unsafe. “Fewer than four in 10 women who have never been married believe that dating apps are a safe way to meet people, a 23-point drop since 2019,” reports the survey center.

 

More than 6-in-10 singles overall say that “dating is more difficult today than it was 10 years ago,” according to the survey center. Further, a majority of singles, 57% of women and 53% of men, say they are pessimistic about finding someone to be with in a committed relationship.  Younger Americans (Generation Z) in particular, are dating less than previous generations, the report documents.

 

The fraying of our personal connections as we move more of our lives online, combined with our deeply divided politics, is taking its toll across the board.  The new report from the Survey Center on American Life shows that our dating lives are no exception.