They Believe in Ambitious Women. But They Also See the Costs. – The New York Times

When Sarah Hamilton was in high school, Hillary Clinton was running for president, and it made a big impression. Her candidacy made Ms. Hamilton want to become a leader someday too, she said, and maybe even run for office.

Four years later, Ms. Hamilton, 21, is no longer interested in leadership. Even though it felt exciting to see Kamala Harris become vice president, she said, the sexism she thought that Ms. Harris and the other female candidates faced was too much. Ms. Hamilton, a graphic designer in San Francisco, would rather help people in a more personal way, like mentoring.

“Before Donald Trump won, I had in my head being a woman doesn’t really matter,” she said. “I think it’s really damaging. All of those women have shown you can rise above that stuff, and you can be in those positions and succeed. But I think for a lot of little girls and people like me, they see that and think, ‘If that’s what it takes to achieve that position, I don’t think it’s worth it.’”

This generation of teenagers was raised hearing that girls could be anything they wanted — maybe even president. Many of them say it’s important for leadership to be more inclusive than in the past. But they are also cleareyed about the sexism female leaders face, as are their male peers, according to a new survey of 604 teenagers byDynata for The New York Times.

Seven in 10 teenage girls and boys said they thought a woman would be elected president in the next decade. But 80 percent of girls and 74 percent of boys said women face sexism when they run, and just half of teenagers thought men and women had an equal chance of being elected, found the survey. It included 327 girls, nearly half of whom were Black, Hispanic, Native American or Asian-American.

Ms. Hamilton was part of a group of young women who were firstinterviewed as Oregon high schoolers in 2016 (we followed up with them now that they can vote). The last four years, they said, had opened their eyes to systemic sexism and racism. For some, it moved them to activism or leadership. For others, like Ms. Hamilton, it made them search elsewhere for a way to make a difference. All said it emphasized for them the importance of diversity in government.

“As these girls come into voting age, they are going to insist that the spaces that they enter are representative of the people,” said Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, a political scientist at Purdue. “That is going to be remarkable — and it’s going to create some problems for the Democratic Party, in that the party is not going to be moving fast enough for these girls.”

Like the young women from Oregon, who were from a liberal city and a conservative rural town,young people nationally lean left, research shows. Pew Research Center has found that Generation Z, including those who identify as Republican, ismore open-minded than older generations about various types of diversity. In the Dynata survey, even though Biden-supporting girls were more likely to stress the importance of female leaders and the challenge of sexism, the majority of Trump-supporting girls did, too.

Recent events have reinforced theconflicting messages young women receive. They have seen record numbers of women enter Congress and the first female vice president. Some exchanged pinkie promises with Elizabeth Warren to remember that she was running because “that’s what girls do.” But they’ve also seen the women who ran for the highest office lose, and a president who has belittled women and critiqued female leaders’ appearance.

The survey showed that young people no longer believe many of the things that have hindered women seeking leadership before. Nine in 10 teenagers, regardless of gender, said that ambition was a good trait in both males and females.

But asked if they were interested in running for office in the future, six in 10 white boys said yes, compared with 44 percent of white girls. Among teenagers of color, 39 percent of boys and 36 percent of girls wanted to run.

Onereason for the difference is that most of the leaderschildren learn about are white men, said Mirya Holman, a political scientist at Tulane. Also,they pick up on the idea that boys — but not girls — should be competitive and aggressive, and that those traits are necessary in politics.

Butresearch has also shown the power of role models, particularly the first time someone from a group becomes a leader. The survey found that girls were most inspired to consider leadership by themany “firsts” of the Biden administration — including the first women, people of color and gay people to serve in some senior roles.

“It was really powerful to see Kamala Harris be able to be in such a high place of power, because she’s an African-American woman and so am I,” said Georgia Wolfe, 19, who is studying to become a dentist and living in her sorority at the University of Oregon. “It widens who I think deserves a say in my life, and it just gives me hope.”

(Ms. Harris may be a role model in a more concrete way: the Converse sneakers she often wore on the campaign trail. Four in ten of the girls, and more Democrats than Republicans, said that as adults, they saw themselves wearing sneakers to work — the most of any shoe choice. Just one in 10 planned to wear heels.)

Even for teenagers who do not plan to run, the survey showed they were attuned to the effects of diversity in government. Eighty percent of the girls said that havingmore women in public office was important. Just 38 percent of girls of color said the government had their interests in mind.

When she was in high school, Daryn Hickok was a Black Student Union secretary and wanted to be “the first girl president.” No longer. Ms. Hickok, now a 20-year-old basketball player at Weber State in Ogden, Utah, said she had shifted her focus.

“Just seeing how underrepresented women were, especially Black women, was crazy to me,” she said. “It did not motivate me to want to become a senator or anything like that, but it motivated me to want to be well educated in it, and to be able to educate others.”

In the survey, three-quarters of girls who supported Mr. Trump said his presidency inspired them to consider running for office. Othersturned to activism out of disillusionment with his presidency — nearly half of girls who supported Mr. Biden also said Mr. Trump made them more interested in running.

Ana Shepherd, 18, said she had been repelled by politicians and lawyers — until the Trump presidency. Now, she is studying political science and wants to become an immigration lawyer. A Mexican immigrant, she said the treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration catalyzed her.

“It’s almost out of spite for the past four years,” Ms. Shepherd said. “Out of spite, I want to be the brown Mexican politician who rose.”

Some were grappling with race in other ways. Jessica Griepenburg, 19, has spent the pandemic working as a nanny and writing a novel, on a year off from Mills College. She said her longstanding skepticism of government grew as she watched recent events, attended protests and learned new perspectives at college. “It’s a lot easier for me to get my voice heard as a white woman, and I don’t think we need more of that,” she said.

“There are a lot more people who deserve a leadership role more than I do,” she said, an idea other white girls echoed.

Jordan Barrett, 19, was a Trump supporter in 2016, like her family and most of her hometown, Moro, Ore. She’s still there, attending college remotely, raising goats and studying animal science. She said the last four years had made her think about whose voices are heard. Her first time voting for president, she chose Mr. Biden.

“I think my generation is a little more fearless when they stand up for things,” she said. “I’m hoping they’re using their power and voice for good, and to represent people who don’t have a voice.”

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