Poll: Only 52 Percent of Americans Would Be “Comfortable” with a Female President

According to a recent study, only 52 percent of Americans are “comfortable” with women in positions of power. Kantar and Women Political Leaders Global Forum teamed up to determine how the world populace views female leadership, and how that differs between men and across industries. They call this survey the “Reykjavik Index for Leadership to Measure the State of Equality for Women and Men in Leadership,” according to a press release.

The Index surveyed 10,000 people across 20 industries in the G7 countries. The U.S. came in as the third-most comfortable, with a total of 52 percent, broken down to 45 percent of men and 60 percent of women being comfortable with women in power. It’s beaten out by Canada, with 57 percent total and the U.K. with 58 percent. Though the U.K.’s high ranking could be due to its current head of state, Theresa May, it’s important to note that Germany, which has been helmed by Angela Merkel for years, ranked sixth with a meager 26 percent.

Across the board, women were always more likely to see women as suitable for leadership positions than men. Kantar and WPL realize this is a huge gap to cross on the way to equality. The Index ranks that dissonance between men and women via the Men/Women Dissonance Score. The U.S. scores the second lowest here with -1.8, only beating out Germany with a dismal -2.4.

Kantar is hopeful in spite of these seemingly disappointing scores: According to its study, the progress is slow, but present. Its creators write, “We have a long way to go before equality in leadership between men and women is the social norm.” As women like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris are rumored to make presidential bids, hopefully that happens before 2020.

The scores for each country are available via the screenshot below, or on Kantar’s site along with the full survey.