Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Gender & LGBTQ

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Featured Publications

data essay

The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap

The difference between the earnings of men and women has barely closed in the United States in the past two decades. This gap persists even as women today are more likely than men to have graduated from college, suggesting other factors are at play such as parenthood and other family needs.


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    Gay Marriage: The Electorate Changes, and Politics Follow

    Seems like just yesterday that opposition to gay marriage was the strategy of choice to rally and energize the conservative base. In the 2004 presidential election, analysts believed that proposed state constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage increased the turnout of socially conservative voters in as many as 11 states, where the measures appeared on the […]

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    The Gender Gap: Three Decades Old, as Wide as Ever

    The gender gap in presidential politics is not new. Democratic candidates have gotten more support from women than men for more than 30 years. Even so, Barack Obama’s advantages among women voters over his GOP rivals are striking. In the Pew Research Center’s most recent national survey, conducted March 7-11, Obama led Mitt Romney by […]

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    Public Divided Over Birth Control Insurance Mandate

    Overview About six-in-ten Americans (62%) have heard about the proposed federal rule that would require employers, including most religiously affiliated institutions, to cover birth control as part of their health care benefits. Among those aware of the issue, opinion is closely divided over whether these institutions should be given an exemption to the rule if […]

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    Public Divided Over Birth Control Insurance Mandate

    Americans who have heard about the federal rule that would require employers to provide birth control as part of their health care benefits are closely divided over whether religiously affiliated institutions should be given an exemption. Sharp divisions of opinion exist on the issue by religious affiliation, party and ideology.

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    Growing Public Support for Same-Sex Marriage

    UPDATED FEBRUARY 16, 2012, WITH MORE COMPLETE DATA. As courts and legislatures address the question of whether same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry, public support for gay marriage continues to grow. Polls in 2011 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that an average of 46% favor allowing […]

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    Religion and Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage

    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Feb. 7 that a 2008 California referendum banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. According to the Pew Research Center’s latest polling on the issue, support for same-sex marriage varies by religious group.