Student Union
Gender Gap Seen in US Youth Vote
Since the 2016 presidential election, more than 15 million people have turned 18, making young people a critical voter bloc for the 2020 presidential elections this November.
Like their elders, the youth vote is not a monolith or a unified voting bloc that aligns on all issues and demographics. Gender, like race, will impact youth voting in its own way.
Among millennial voters, born between 1981-1996, women were more likely to identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, according to the Pew Research Center.
Pew reported that 60% of millennial women associated with the Democratic Party while 31% associated with the Republican, or GOP. For millennial men, the gap was much smaller, with 48% associating with the Democratic Party and 44% associating with the GOP.
“Gender issues have been a big consideration for me, specifically just in regard to communicating with people of another gender,” said Christian Lohrenz, a senior at Minnesota State University at Mankato.
“LGBTQ rights, equality, those are big deal to me,” Lohrenz said. “You look at the ban on transgender people being in the military, those are certainly things that I disagreed with and I was cognizant of when I was picking my candidate.”
Lohrenz said he will be voting for Biden because he agrees with the ideas the Biden campaign put forth for education, criminal justice reform, and climate change.
For young women ages 18-29, 60% polled say they intend to vote for Joe Biden, according to data from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
CIRCLE’s 2020 pre-election youth poll also shows that young women of color support Joe Biden, with 77% of young Asian women, 71% of young Black women and 61% of young Latinas intending to vote for Biden.
However, this does not mean they approve of the Democratic presidential nominee, as the polling asks. Only 30% of young women of color approve or strongly approve of Biden.
On the other hand, 81% of young women disapprove of President Donald Trump. Among young women of color, the percentage is higher, with 94% of young Asian women, 88% of young Latinas, and 85% of young Black women.
“I’m voting for Joe Biden because I don’t agree with Trump at all with some of his policies and the way he treats people,” said Jenna Peterson, a junior at Minnesota State University at Mankato. “Is Biden perfect? No. But he is the better option, and he wants to fight for the policies that I believe in such as reproductive health, women’s rights and climate change.”
Kaylee Corvin, a sophomore at the University of Virginia, says that while she doesn’t always agree with Trump as a person, she will be voting for him because he aligns best with her political views.
“Being able to defend yourself with a firearm: I think that this goes down to really be able to protect yourself and stand up for yourself than rely on the government. I think that’s a huge thing for women empowerment,” she said.
“For reproductive issues, I stand a bit more on the pro-life side. But it’s definitely more pro-birth control, pro-access to sexual education, and better access to adoption and funding programs to support mothers,” Corvin added.
Grace Leto, a junior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, said she, too, favors the Trump/Pence ticket.
“I voted for [Trump] because I strongly believe that he is the best candidate. He has strengthened our economy so much these past four years, is bold in his actions, and treasures/respects the mission of the military,” she said.
“Trump is not the best with words. He has said some comments before that are pretty sexist and I really don’t know what he has done in depth for women’s rights. I do know the recent appointment of the new Supreme Court justice is female, and he especially wanted to keep a woman in the Supreme Court,” Leto said.
The recent confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court, eight days before the presidential elections, has also highlighted gender issues in the minds of many young voters.
“With Amy Coney Barrett becoming the new Supreme Court Justice, I’m definitely concerned about my health care and my rights. She’s had a history of not being for abortion and the Affordable Care Act, and she’s Trump-appointed,” said Shruti Nallappa, a master’s student at George Washington University. Nallappa said she will vote for Joe Biden.
Barrett is on record as disagreeing with abortion, as well as the Affordable Care Act. But some view it as a success for women’s representation.
“Honestly, I’m a little confused from where all the hate comes from. A lot of times people talk about empowering women and this is an example of an extremely successful, strong woman,” said Trevor McDowell, a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.
McDowell says he will vote for Trump because of his strong support of the Second Amendment, Trump’s economic policies, and because he believes there is a “much deeper corruption” in career politicians.
Overall, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has more support from women than men with 56% of women and 50% of men leaning Biden, according to the Pew Research Center. President Trump sees more support from men than women with 48% of men and 42% of women supporting Trump or leaning Trump.
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Economics, tensions blamed for Chinese students shifting from US to Australia, Britain
U.S. universities are welcoming international students as the academic year begins. But while the total number of foreign students is steadily growing, the top sending country, China, is showing signs of leveling out or shrinking.
Industry analysts say the negative trend is mainly due to higher costs amid China’s struggling economy, with a growing number of students going to less expensive countries like Australia and Britain, and tense ties between Washington and Beijing.
The number of foreign students studying in the U.S. in 2022-23 passed 1 million for the first time since the COVID pandemic, said Open Doors, an information resource on international students and scholars.
While the U.S. saw a nearly 12% total increase year-on-year for that period, the number of international students from China, its top source, fell by 0.2% to 289,526.
That’s 600 fewer students than the 2021-22 academic year, when their numbers dropped by nearly 9%. The COVID pandemic saw Chinese student numbers drop in 2020-21 by nearly 15%, in line with the world total drop.
While it’s not yet clear if the drop is a leveling out or a fluctuating decline, analysts say China’s struggling economy and the high cost of studying in the U.S. are the main reasons for the fall in student numbers.
Vincent Chen, a Chinese study abroad consultant based in Shanghai, said although most of his clients are still interested in studying in the U.S., there is a clear downward trend, while applicants for Anglophone universities in Australia and Britain have been increasing.
"If you just want to go abroad, a one-year master's degree in the U.K. is much cheaper,” Chen said. “Many people can't afford to study in the U.S., so they have to settle for the next best thing."
Data from the nonprofit U.S. group College Board Research shows that in the 2023-24 academic year, the average tuition and fees for a U.S. private college four-year education increased 4% to $41,540 compared with the previous academic year.
The British Council said three to four years of undergraduate tuition in Britain starts as low as $15,000.
The number of Chinese students in Britain was 154,260 in 2022-23, according to the U.K. Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA, up from 121,145 in the 2018/19 academic year.
Australia’s Home Affairs office said in the 2023-24 program year, China was the top source foreign country for new student visa grants at 43,389, up slightly (1.5%) from the previous year.
Chen said Chinese state media's negative portrayal of the United States and concerns about discrimination have also contributed to the shift.
Bruce Zhang, a Chinese citizen who received his master's degree in Europe after studying in China, told VOA Mandarin he had such an incident occur to him after he was admitted to a U.S. university’s Ph.D. program.
When he entered Boston's Logan International Airport last year, Zhang said customs officers questioned him for more than an hour about his research, and if it had any links to the military, and took his computer and mobile phone for examination.
"Fortunately, I had heard that U.S. customs might be stringent in inspecting Chinese students, so I had relatively few study-related data and documents on my personal computer," he said.
Zhang was allowed to enter the U.S. for his studies in materials science, but the questioning left him so rattled that he has encouraged other Chinese to study elsewhere.
Cui Kai, a study abroad consultant in Massachusetts told VOA Mandarin that experiences like Zhang’s or worse happen for a reason.
"Students who were questioned or their visas were revoked at the customs are usually those who completed their undergraduate studies in China and come to the U.S. for a master's or doctoral degree in a sensitive major," said Cui.
Former President Donald Trump signed Proclamation 10043 in June 2020, prohibiting visas for any Chinese student who “has been employed by, studied at, or conducted research at or on behalf of, an entity in the PRC that implements or supports the PRC's “military-civil fusion strategy.”
The U.S. says China has been using students and scholars to gain access to key technology and, under Proclamation 10043, revoked more than 1,000 visas issued to Chinese nationals and has denied thousands more.
Critics say the policy is costly to the U.S. and is encouraging Chinese students to look to European and other universities.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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