Is poverty "sexist"?

A majority of French people (53%) see poverty as being "sexist", i.e. that it disproportionately affects, or has a disproportionately greater impact on, women than men. Only 8% of French people disagree with this statement.

However, this question resulted in a high percentage of "I don’t know" answers (18%). This figure can be added to the 21% who said they neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement.

There are slightly more women than men who think that poverty is "sexist". And even if there is general consensus across the political spectrum of respondents on the question, there is all the same a greater tendency for left-wing voters to agree with the statement compared to center- and right-wing voters.

The biggest factor influencing answers is age: those under 50 are much more likely not to have an opinion on the question, and also - when they do have an opinion - less likely to agree that poverty is sexist.

This data comes from our survey conducted by the YouGov Institute and piloted by the research team at University College London and the University of Birmingham as part of the project Aid Attitudes Tracker which measures the evolution of opinions and behaviors on issues of international solidarity in four countries.