Americans are ready now more than ever to elect a woman president.
Eight years ago, roughly half the country said it was ready to elect a female to the White House — now, that number is 67 percent, according to a new Economist/YouGov Poll.
Just 22 percent of Americans think the country is not ready to elect a woman president now, compared to 39 percent who thought this in January 2007 and 53 percent who thought this in October 1996.
Democrats and Independents said they are more ready to elect a woman president now compared to Republicans. However, since January 2007 all three voter groups have shown a growth in support for a woman in the White House.
In January 2007, just 38 percent of Republicans said the U.S. was ready for a female present — that percentage is now 53 percent. Seventy-nine percent of Democrats said “yes” when asked “Do you think America is ready to elect a woman president, or not” this year, compared to 66 percent in January 2007. The number of Independents who said “yes” has grown from 53 percent in 2007 to 61 percent now.
Across the political spectrum, 61 percent of Americans are personally hoping that the U.S. has a woman president in their lifetimes, compared to 18 percent who say no and 21 percent who are unsure.
The random Internet poll of 1,000 Americans was conducted March 21-23 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.
While the public’s theoretical openness to a woman president is good news for likely 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state, failed to get majority support in the poll. Forty-nine percent of poll respondents gave Clinton a “favorable” or “somewhat favorable” rating. That’s still well ahead of the other potential woman candidate — former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, a possible Republican candidate whose favorable total came to just 17 percent.
Clinton is currently leading the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination field by more than 45 points, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls. Neither major party has ever put forth a female nominee for president, though both have run female vice presidential candidates, without success.
