While a solid majority of Americans (55%) say they do not think the gender of the president matters, 33% say it would be a good thing to elect a woman president, while just 9% believe it would be a bad thing. Nationally, 42% of women say it would be good to elect a woman president, compared with 24% of men, and the gap is largest among younger generations. About twice as many women ages 18-29 as men in the same group say it would be good to have a woman president (50% vs. 24%). By comparison, there is virtually no gender gap among Americans age 65 and over (31% women and 26% of men say “good thing”). Views about a woman president in general are highly correlated with party. Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans (42% vs. 21%) to say electing a woman would be a good thing. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.