How many Americans call themselves feminists?

Compared to 2016, more women now say that they're feminists, but they're still outnumbered

Feminism might be on the rise, but many women aren’t on board. Though slightly more women consider themselves feminists now (38%) than they did in 2016 (32%), close to half (48%) of women still say they are not feminists, according to new data from YouGov Omnibus. Among men, only about one in five (22%) say they consider themselves to be a feminist, which is a very slight increase from 2016, when 19% of men said they were feminists.

Among non-feminists, there are a few common reasons they don’t identify with the label. Almost half (48%) of non-feminist women say “feminists are too extreme,” while another 47% agree with the statement “the current wave of feminism does not represent true feminism.” One in five (20%) non-feminist women say they “do not believe that men and women are equal,” while 14% of non-feminist men agree with this statement.

There were significant disparities in responses related to equal pay. While 27% of men say that men and women are paid equally, only 19% of women feel the same. About four in ten (39%) women say men are paid “a lot” more than women, and another 38% of women say men are paid “a little” more. For men, these numbers were 24% and 42%, respectively.

Black (45%) and Hispanic (39%) respondents are considerably more likely than white (29%) respondents to say that men are paid “a lot” more. The most common answer among white respondents is “Men are paid a little more than women,” with close to half (45%) choosing this answer.

When asked which gender they believe “has it harder” in America, the most common answer was “men and women both have it hard in their own ways,” with 39% of people choosing this response. Men (13%) are more than twice as likely as women (5%) to say that men have it harder, while about one-quarter of women (26%) say women have it “a lot harder.” In comparison, 16% of men said that women have it “a lot harder.”

See full results here and 2016 results here.

Learn more about YouGov Omnibus.

Image: Getty