Analysis: The unexpected gender dynamic shaping the 2024 election | CNN Politics

Donald Trump ’s recent declaration to female voters that “I will be your protector” offered the latest demonstration of his determination to consolidate the voters most committed to traditional gender roles and family structures.

Political strategists in both parties believe the GOP nominee risks further alienating the broad array of voters who are comfortable with the social changes that have challenged those traditional patterns of family life.

Younger, college-educated and single women are likely to be particularly resistant to the idea that they need protecting by any man much less one in Trump .

Polls show attitudes toward traditional roles now separate the two parties' voters in an era when culture not class has become the principal glue binding each side’s coalition.

Most Republicans including a significant majority of GOP men and a substantial share of GOP women are resistant to rethinking traditional views of gender roles at home and in the workplace.

Some working-class White women, especially older ones, will respond to Trump ’s relentless insistence that undocumented immigrants threaten their safety.

Trump is presenting himself in a very conventional “ Father Knows Best ” kind of frame: the strong man who provides the protection that women need because they are inherently vulnerable.

Trump 's problem is that most voters outside the core GOP coalition are generally comfortable with the changes in gender roles and family dynamics since the 1950s .

The critical question for both sides is whether any gains for Trump among blue-collar and older women drawn to his economic record and “protector” messaging will be erased by a backlash.