Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance infamously mentioned in 2021 that the Democratic Get together is run by “a bunch of childless cat women who’re depressing at their very own lives and the alternatives they’ve made” – and shouldn’t have a “direct stake” in the way forward for the USA.
Three years later, after Vance’s choice as Trump’s vice presidential choose, these feedback resurfaced and shortly turned a cultural touchstone.
In July 2024, Vance clarified his controversial feedback, saying that what he meant was that the Democratic Get together has develop into anti-family and anti-child.
At a September 2024 marketing campaign occasion alongside Donald Trump, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders echoed Vance’s sentiments about Democrats being anti-family. “My youngsters maintain me humble. Sadly, Kamala Harris doesn’t have something retaining her humble,” she mentioned.
The one cat girl theme was amplified additional when singer Taylor Swift used it to log off on her Instagram endorsement of Harris.
Whereas the cat girl framing is new, politicians making parenthood and household a centerpiece of their appeals to the American public has a protracted historical past.
As we present in our 2012 e book, “The Politics of Parenthood,” and subsequent analysis, politicians have been utilizing messages about parenthood as a technique to attraction to voters since the Nineteen Eighties. eg: hyperlink wouldn’t work for me
Content material evaluation of occasion platforms and speeches by presidential candidates reveals that each events have devoted increasingly time and area to creating the case that they’re the true pro-family occasion. Republicans argue that decrease taxes and smaller authorities strengthen American households, whereas Democrats argue that strengthening social welfare packages represents the easiest way to help households.
Regardless of the events’ contrasting pro-family messages and the picture conjured by Vance’s childless cat girl feedback, Republicans and Democrats should not actually that totally different in relation to their precise experiences having and elevating youngsters.
Our evaluation reveals that the age at which Individuals have youngsters, what number of youngsters they’ve and whether or not mother and father work exterior the house are surprisingly related throughout partisan traces.
Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Occasions through Getty Photographs
Democrats and Republicans discover parenting rewarding
To discover whether or not there are variations between Republicans and Democrats by way of their households, we analyzed knowledge from the 2022 Common Social Survey, which had 4,149 respondents. GSS is a nationally consultant and properly acknowledged survey of American adults that has been carried out since 1972. We additionally analyzed knowledge from a 2022 Pew survey of three,757 moms and dads targeted on parenting in America.
This knowledge reveals that each Republicans and Democrats deeply worth their roles as mother and father. Within the Pew survey, 87% of fogeys mentioned that their function as a mother or father is crucial or one of the vital vital features of their id. Our evaluation reveals that is true for folks in each events – 86% of Democrats and 88% of Republicans mentioned they worth their function as mother and father as essentially the most or one of the vital vital features of their id.
Equally, our evaluation of the Pew knowledge reveals that Democrats and Republicans each take pleasure in being mother and father – 84% of Republicans say they discover parenting pleasant most or all the time, in contrast with 81% of Democrats.
That mentioned, modern parenting can be difficult.
The 2022 Pew survey confirmed that 29% of fogeys describe elevating youngsters as anxious most or all the time. And 42% of fogeys report that elevating youngsters is tiring all or more often than not. Our evaluation reveals that that is equally true for Republicans and Democrats.
Certainly, the stresses of recent parenthood led the U.S. surgeon common in August 2024 to situation a public well being advisory about mother and father’ declining psychological well-being.
One of many causes for this stress is that almost all mother and father in the present day are balancing parenthood with work. The Republican Get together has lengthy embraced “conventional marriage,” that means a wedding between a person and a lady, the place the mom stays house to lift the youngsters. But the fact is that most mothers have jobs exterior the house. In our evaluation of the 2022 Pew knowledge, we discover that about the identical portion of Republican mothers – 67% – work exterior the house as Democratic mothers, who totaled 69%.
Each Republican and Democratic mothers do extra parenting
One other approach that the expertise of parenthood is analogous throughout partisan traces is that mothers spend extra time parenting than dads. Pew requested mother and father with companions and spouses concerning the division of labor round a wide range of baby care duties in 2022.
In our evaluation of the complete set of this knowledge, which Pew supplied us, we discovered that 77% of Democratic moms and 80% of Republican moms report doing greater than their partner or companion in relation to managing their youngsters’s actions. And 60% of Democratic moms and 58% of Republican moms report offering extra consolation and emotional help to their youngsters than their spouses or companions do.
This may occasionally account for why the Pew knowledge reveals that moms, extra so than fathers, report parenting being tiring most or all the time – 47% for mothers, in contrast with 34% for dads. As soon as once more, our evaluation reveals that moms’ larger ranges of fatigue maintain true for each Republican and Democratic moms in contrast with Republican and Democratic dads.
To evaluate the demographics of parenthood, we analyzed the 2022 Common Social Survey knowledge and located that Republicans and Democrats begin their households at an analogous age, simply as they did a decade in the past.
On common, female and male Democrats are 26 once they have their first child, whereas Republicans are 25. Greater ranges of training are related to beginning households later, however that is true for these in each events.
girls particularly, we discover that Democratic girls have their first baby at 25 years previous, and Republican girls at 24. There isn’t a proof that Democratic girls – extra so than Republican girls – are delaying having youngsters in order that they can pursue their careers, as advised by Vance and Sanders of their critiques of the Democratic Get together and Harris particularly.
It’s true that Individuals are having fewer youngsters in contrast with a number of a long time in the past. However this drop in having youngsters is sort of common in high-income democracies, even regardless of some authorities insurance policies that search to enhance the beginning price within the U.S.
Our evaluation reveals that the hole between Republicans and Democrats on this situation is modest. On common, Democrats are having 1.53 youngsters, in contrast with 1.86 for Republicans.
And the 2022 Common Social Survey knowledge reveals that Democrats do report having no youngsters at a modestly larger price than Republicans, however it’s males – greater than girls – who report being childless at larger charges. Amongst Individuals over 40, 22% of Democratic males and 16% of Republican males haven’t any youngsters, in contrast with 17% of Democratic girls and 10% of Republican girls.
Regardless of political rhetoric suggesting there’s a deep partisan divide amongst Individuals on problems with households and child-rearing, the information tells a unique story. It paints an image of Individuals, whether or not Democrats or Republicans, as remarkably related within the fundamental demographics of parenting, in addition to of their views concerning the joys and challenges of parenthood.
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