How Men and Women Divide on Hope for the Future of the United States

There are many well-known divides that define America in 2025 — red/blue, urban/rural, college/non-college — but the split along gender lines has become a dominant theme in the nation’s political and cultural discourse. National data show men and women view a range of issues, from health care to the economy, differently. But, as we recently noted, the gender gap doesn’t look the same everywhere.

To better understand how men and women see the United States more broadly, the American Communities Project analyzed male and female responses around hope for the future of the country in all 15 community types from our 2024 survey with Ipsos.

Two clear points jump out of the data.

First, on the whole, women seem to have a less hopeful view than men about the direction of the nation, both short- and long-term. That shows up in most of the community types and very different kinds of places, from the Aging Farmlands to the College Towns.

Second, the gender divides look very different in the community types. In some places, men and women seem to be largely in agreement about the near-term and long-term hopes for the country. In others, there were wide differences, and there are some where men are more dour.

The conclusion in the data seems to be the gender gap can vary greatly depending on where you live and your different cultural, social, and economic experiences. The charts below show the gender differences by community type on people’s hopefulness about the nation’s short-term and long-term future. Negative numbers mean people were less hopeful than hopeful.

Where Women Are Less Hopeful

For the most part, women in the American Communities Project/Ipsos 2024 survey were less hopeful than men about the nation’s short-term future (that was true in 11 of the 15 types) and long-term future (where it was true for 12 of the 15 types).

That finding was true in rural communities, such as Graying America, as well as communities with larger and younger populations, such as the Exurbs.

Some differences between men and women were larger than others (more on that below), but the relative consistency suggests that something bigger is surfacing in the data.

One could point to recent developments in the country on abortion, since the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and removed the constitutional right to an abortion. But some community types where women are less hopeful, such as the LDS Enclaves, are not especially driven by a pro-abortion rights stance.

Also, not all the community types where women are less hopeful than men are deeply pessimistic. For instance, in the Aging Farmlands, women are far less hopeful about the “next few years” than men are, but they are still very narrowly positive overall.

In general, the data suggest that women are, at the very least, more cautious than men about expressing hope for the future.

Where Men Are Less Hopeful

However, the point about women is not true everywhere. There are a few communities where men are less hopeful than women about the future of the nation — short-term and long-term — and some clearer trends emerge in the data.

In two community types, the African American South and Working Class Country, men expressed more negative views than women. While the two types are quite different in racial and ethnic composition, they have socioeconomic and cultural traits in common. Both are full of rural and remote communities, have relatively low levels of educational attainment, and are on the lower end of the median-household-income scale.

They are also places where jobs can be hard to find, which may be especially true for men. The small manufacturing jobs that were once a part of life here have dried up.

The numbers for Working Class Country truly stand out. That’s the only community type where men were a net negative on hope about the nation in the short-term and long-term. In both time frames, 53% of the men in Working Class Country said they were “not hopeful” about the future of the United States.

In Rural Middle America and the Military Posts, men said they were not hopeful about the nation in the short-term, but more hopeful in the long-term. As this survey was conducted in 2024, that may have had something to do with politics. Both community types went heavily for Donald Trump in the presidential election, and it could be their “short-term” view of the United States was about then-President Joe Biden.

The Sharpest Divides

In the charts above, a few community types stand out for conveying big differences in how men and women feel about the future of the United States — short-term and long-term.

Consider the College Towns. When it comes to the long-term future of the United States, women were decidedly negative — 55% were not hopeful about it. But 56% of the men said they felt positive about the nation’s long-term future.

The Military Posts, also home to many young people, saw a similar split. Among women in those communities, 56% said they were not hopeful about the nation’s long-term future, while only 43% said they were hopeful. Among men in the Military Posts, the numbers were much closer: 51% said they were hopeful, while 49% said they were not hopeful.

The LDS Enclaves also showed huge differences on gender. Short-term and long-term, 61% of women said they were not hopeful about the future of the United States. Meanwhile, men said they were hopeful about the nation’s short-term and long-term prospects.

What Is the “Why?”

These data raise as many questions as they answer. In the weeks ahead, the American Communities Project will visit different kinds of communities to better understand what’s driving these differences.

As we often note, survey data are good at laying out the size and scope of the challenges people feel in different communities, but they do not go very far in explaining why people hold the attitudes they do.

We’ll be exploring that question when we hit the road.