A clueless woman looking for attention. Prissy and confused little girl. Not pretty enough to be a Trump girl. Meghan Milloy has been called all of that because she’s a Republican woman who plans to vote for Hillary Clinton. For standing against Donald Trump, she’s faced an onslaught of criticism on social media—and a lot of it has been sexist. “People have been coming out of the woodwork, calling me every name in the book,” Milloy said in an interview.
Trump is famous for insulting women. He rates and ranks women based on the way they look, so much so that entire articles have been devoted to chronicling his sexist comments. As Milloy has discovered, some of his fans seem to act and talk in similar ways.
The Republican presidential candidate is extremely unpopular with women, even those who could be counted on to support conservatives in past elections. These voters could be the reason Trump loses the election, perhaps in a landslide. If Republican women vote against Trump in 2016, will they permanently leave the party?
Men and women are likely to care about many of the same issues, but women may react differently to Trump’s priorities and what he has to say. Pew Research recently concluded that “women are more likely to emphasize certain issues, including the treatment of racial and ethnic minorities.” A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that women were more likely than men to say Trump doesn’t show enough respect toward people he disagrees with and to rate that as a major problem. Trump’s denigrating remarks directed at women, Muslims, immigrants, and Mexicans may be more unacceptable to female voters.