New poll, same finding: women more supportive of trans rights than men
As I’ve commented on before, there’s an odd and unhelpful difference between what gets said about trans rights and what the public actually thinks:
I want to pick up a different angle: the claim that supporting trans rights is something imposed on women. That’s the tenor of Jenni Russell’s much discussed recent piece for The Times, headlined, “Starmer is taking 99.9% of women for fools”. Trans rights are presented as something supported by men, despite opposition from women…
[But] support for trans women using women’s toilets is higher among women than men. And to round it off, as the majority of people are women, what flows from the above is that the majority of supporters of trans women using women’s toilet are… women.
This applies on other aspects of trans rights too. For example, last year YouGov found women on balance supporting trans women using women’s toilets (45%-34%), using women’s changing rooms (40%-37%), and using women’s refuges (45%-30%). In each case, support among women was higher than among men by an average of thirteen points.
It’s the same picture again with new polling from YouGov about whether the Women’s Institute should admit trans women. A (slim) plurality of women agree, but a plurality of men disagree (37%-35% and 26%-48%).
So the overall opposition to the idea comes from men wanting to disregard what is the most popular viewpoint among women.
As I wrote in that earlier piece:
Saying that women should be listened to is good point to make. It’s an even better point to make if it’s then acted on with good evidence.
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It’s certainly correct that women appear to be more likely than men to support granting (or maintaining) rights to trans people, almost across the board, according to last year’s very wide-ranging Yougov survey (https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2022/07/20/where-does-british-public-stand-transgender-rights).
However, it also showed very clearly how easy it is for any of us to cherry-pick the questions that give us the answers we want to hear.
As you write, “…YouGov found women on balance supporting trans women using women’s toilets (45%-34%), using women’s changing rooms (40%-37%), and using women’s refuges (45%-30%).”
But the same 2022 survey found that women on balance OPPOSED trans women “who has not had gender reassignment surgery” using women’s toilets (34% for; 40% against), and using women’s changing rooms (29% for; 42% against).
Infuriatingly, there was no equivalent question on trans women without gender reassignment surgery having access to women’s refuges.
While women also broadly supported many rights currently held by trans people but, on balance and by large margins, they opposed making it easier for trans people to change their legal gender, allowing trans women to take part in women’s sporting events, and puberty blockers, hormone treatment or puberty blockers being available to under-16s – all demands being made by gender campaigners.
The survey analysis can be found at https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2022/07/20/where-does-british-public-stand-transgender-rights.
The full results are at https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/74l25pslh3/Internal_TransgenderIssues_220720_final_extraXbreak_FINAL.pdf
And yet, statistics can also be used in bad faith to support a pre-existing, politically right wing mass media driven ideological viewpoint – as you have done.
Your last paragraph is in no way based on statistics. Merely on the opinions fed to you by the Telegraph and the Mail. And … seemingly without a sense of irony … full of you, a man, making statements about what “women” think.
You berate people cherry picking stats, then you cherry pick stats. It was seemingly “infuriating” to you that the survey did not ask questions which you believe would support your pre-existing prejudice.
Statistics should be interpreted by statisticians. Not by ideologues.
Recently Tom Harris the former Labour MP explained on FB at length how his wife was opposed to sharing facilities with transwomen. However we never heard from the lady herself. That resonates with the findings of the poll.