From Women’s History Month to the minimum wage debate, here are this week’s top college student insights.
Women’s History Month
A new survey of 750 undergraduates finds that almost three-quarters (74%) believe the United States will elect a female president by 2032. While just 17% believe the country will send a woman to the White House in 2024, 29% expect it to happen in 2028 and 28% in 2032. Female students are only slightly more likely than male students to predict it to happen by 2032 (75% vs. 73%). But students who attend private universities are more likely than those who attend public universities to agree (81% vs. 71%).
Just 11% of college students know Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president in the U.S., while almost half (46%) say they aren’t sure who was first. Democratic students are three times as likely as Republican students to answer correctly (16% vs. 5%). Yet 1 in 5 Democrats (20%) and Republicans (20%) alike believe Hillary Clinton was the first woman to run for U.S. president.
Looking beyond the Oval Office, half (50%) of female college students believe equal rights for men and women in the U.S. will be achieved in their lifetime, while 14% believe they already have equal rights. But male students (43%) are three times as likely to say American men and women are already treated as equals, and Republicans are 12 times as likely as Democrats to say so (75% vs. 6%).
Do you think equal rights for men and women in the United States will be achieved in your lifetime?
Minimum Wage
The Biden administration’s attempt to raise the minimum wage in the next stimulus package has reignited the debate over what it would mean for the American economy. In a survey of 1,070 students, a majority (72%) say they agree that the minimum wage should increase when low-income housing costs and rents increase. The partisan divide seen in Washington doesn’t disappear among the younger generation, however. Almost 9 in 10 (88%) college Democrats agree with the statement, compared to about half (49%) of college Republicans.
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Methodology: All surveys were designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted among a sample of full-time and part-time students attending colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel.
