In-Depth Interviews: 3 Things Moderate Women (Mostly) Agree On

With help from our friends at FrameShift, Galvanize Action conducted 21 extremely in-depth interviews with moderate white women this spring. In these 90-minute sessions, we asked women in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio questions about big issues like abortion, democracy, and the economy. These interviews help us understand the how and why behind other research, like the modeling survey we’ll show you next month. When we put it all together, we get a much clearer picture of how traits, values, and attitudes about topical issues shape our civic behavior. Let’s look at three things we learned!

Note: This article refers to two of our voter segments (e.g., Uncertain Individualist, Trusting Liberal), which you can read about here. In this research, we’ve split Uncertain Individualists (our youngest and typically least-engaged segment) into two groups based on whether they lean ideologically a little more conservative or a little more liberal. 

ONE: All (yes, ALL) of the moderate women we spoke to have been struggling financially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they’re holding varying levels of anxiety about the future. 

For some, this shows up as feeling abandoned or betrayed by the government. 

• “There really isn’t any help. It’s depressing. I just try to get by day to day, but I feel like I could curl up in a ball and cry most days.” –Conservative-leaning Uncertain Individualist
• “Prices are rising to no end. Pay isn’t going up much. But [corporations] are announcing record sales. I feel angry and hopeless. I’m glad you guys are making 5 billion a year while I’m struggling to keep food on the table.” –Liberal-leaning Uncertain Individualist

Others feel a little more hopeful about what the government can do for them, but they’re still clouded by uncertainty.

• “Right now I feel that [the economy] is going in the right direction. So I feel good about that. But I’m uncertain. Things change so quickly.” –Trusting Liberal

TWO: Many moderate women are unhappy about men in positions of power making decisions that impact their lives and freedoms. This is especially apparent in conversations about abortion, IVF, and contraception.

When it comes to reproductive freedom, women told us they feel frustrated and powerless. Even women who are conflicted about abortion are expressing frustration about men taking their rights away. 

• “It’s about women’s rights. That right is being taken away. I’m not saying people should go out and get abortions, they should still be responsible and everything. But it’s about being able to make that choice for yourself.” –Conservative-leaning Uncertain Individualist
• “I feel frustration. The government wants to control us. It’s filled with white men, white collar with money. . .they don’t know what we have to deal with as women. They are just using their power to their benefit.” –Conservative-leaning Uncertain Individualist

Those quotes were both from women under 40; here’s a similar take from a moderate woman who remembers life before Roe v Wade: 

• “We’re lucky enough to be born into this country. I don’t want to go backwards. It feels like somebody’s taking something away from me that pushes us back to a space and time that I didn’t like. A person with power trying to take something they shouldn’t have the right to take.” –Trusting Liberal

THREE: All of the moderate women we heard from are searching for a safe, secure world for themselves and their family. This desire for stability came through clearly no matter which topical issue was being discussed. 

ECONOMY: Re-read those quotes about making ends meet up there in point number one. People are worried about putting food on the table. Before anything else, they need the type of economic stability that guarantees they can care for their family—this is a big part of why the economy is always the top vote choice issue for this audience. Even the most optimistic interviewee we quoted feels uncertain about their long-term economic security!

ABORTION: At the end of the day, everyone just wants security and stability. Some women feel so out of control in their daily lives that they crave choice and freedom. So it’s not surprising that they’re very resistant to their reproductive rights being threatened after 50 years of abortion rights being the stable norm. 

GENDER EQUITY: This is where we started to see more differences in how moderate women expressed their desire for stability and security. Some of the women we heard from feel like the world is moving too fast when it comes to accepting different gender identities, especially as it relates to what children learn about in public schools. They feel a different type of out of control because they think an “agenda” is being pushed on their kids in school. Others (who tend to be those who know more about transgender people and gender identity) were more concerned for the safety and security of trans and nonbinary children.

Here are two different moderate women seeking safety and stability for kids, but in two very different ways:

• “Young minds are still developing and [discussions about gender identity] shouldn’t be so much in a child’s face. I’m worried about my young nieces and nephews that haven’t even started school yet. They’re going to be confused. I’m worried that it’s just going to be harder for them. I just don’t want that for them.”–Conservative-leaning Uncertain Individualist
• “Children should not feel unsafe anywhere. School is not a place where they should feel in danger. [Trans and nonbinary kids] are mocked, bullied, excluded, dehumanized by adults. That is awful. It breaks my heart.” –Liberal-leaning Uncertain Individualist

Now that we understand these three key ideas, how can we apply what we learned? Here are a few key opportunities for Galvanize Action and our allies:

• We can help to frame policies that make our lives better (like paid family leave or price-capped insulin) as the stability that women need. These ads do that well:

• Knowledge really is power in this case: moderate women who know more about gender identity and reproductive healthcare are more likely to take prosocial positions on those issues. We can help women understand more (and that it’s OK to not understand at first as long as you’re kind!) and combat disinformation that seeks to mislead and divide us. 
• We can redirect feelings of frustration and powerlessness, and shift blame toward where it should really lie. For example, if loss of reproductive freedom makes someone feel frustrated, they need to know where that loss of freedom came from beyond just “the government.” If economic stress makes someone feel powerless, they need to know they have the power to choose leaders who cap prescription prices and support programs that help working families. 
• We can also help weave tangible examples of democracy into these other issues as we talk about them. Democracy in the abstract feels intangible for our audience (especially given their lower level of political knowledge), but democracy being the power that allowed you to vote for a leader who implemented the specific policy that made your family’s lives better is much more meaningful. 

By the way, did you catch how much trust/distrust came up in these 3 key learnings? Distrust for corporations, varying levels of trust in the government, implications for trust in teachers and public education. . . keep that in mind for now, and don’t miss this blog next month for a deeper discussion about how trust in government impacts everyone’s civic behavior.