Now that the 2024 election is over, let’s look at exit polling to examine how women voted this time around. Reviewing CNN exit polls, we’ll examine not just how President-elect Donald Trump performed in 2024 but compared to 2020. 

So much ink was spilled over what issues or concerns would motivate women, especially in the final days of the presidential campaign. It was assumed that Trump would be so detrimental they would go as far as to hide their votes from their husbands just to vote against him. As my colleague Carrie Lukas opined:

The Harris campaign had sought to terrify women about abortion and contraception, including the baseless claim that electing Trump would leave women to die from ectopic pregnancy. Women didn’t fall for it.

Organizations like ours pointed out that inflation and the economy, along with public safety, would be greater motivating factors for women than abortion. It’s fair to say that for a plurality of American women, we got it right.

Check out these 7 charts explaining the female vote and observations about the trends among this demographic:

Trump did better with women in 2024 than in 2020.
In 2020, Biden garnered 57% of the women’s vote to Trump’s 42%. Harris underperformed though, even as people celebrated the historicism of a woman seeking the highest office in the land. She only won a little more than over half of women (54%).

Gen X women saved the day.
President Trump won half of Generation X women, the only female age cohort he won. Just over half of Millennial and Baby Boomer women supported Harris, and a whopping nearly two out of three (61%) of Gen Z women supported Harris. Could it be that women grow more conservative as they get older? Perhaps, except that trend does not hold true for Baby Boomer women. Time will tell as this cohort ages.

Married women lean right.
President Trump won married women by just over half, the same as in 2020, and gained unmarried women’s support by two points. However, Harris underperformed among unmarried women compared to Biden (59% vs. 63%). Apparently, the ads asking married women to secretly vote for Harris did not work.

Women with children are breaking from the left.
As in 2020, the Democratic candidates won the majority support of both women with children and those without kids. However, Harris underperformed both groups this time around. Could it be that more moms are revolting against policies that they found objectionable, such as boys playing in girls sports, the Biden-Harris Title IX rewrite, or schools hiding the transitioning of kids without parental consent? 

The left is slowly losing women of color.
Harris underperformed among Hispanic women by 9% and only did one point better than Biden did with black women.

Women without degrees leaned right more than degreed women leaned left.
Americans without a college degree do not want to be talked down to by elites, and this is especially true of white women without degrees.

Suburban moms came back to the fold.
In 2020, President Trump lost suburban voters by a margin of 48% to 50%. In 2024, not only did he win suburban voters, but he won suburban women as well.

Bottom Line

Women comprise slightly more than half of the electorate. Their power is great. One takeaway: women’s support should not be taken for granted. They care about many issues, not just abortion, and policymakers must speak to their many concerns.