OPINION: Young women have become more liberal. How could we not be?

The day after the 2016 election, my women’s and gender studies professor at the University of North Carolina gave us space to discuss our feelings.

The room was predominantly young women, many of whom were disgusted by the Access Hollywood tape and fearful for what the future held. Many of us, myself included, were worried about the future of Roe v. Wade and democracy as we knew it. In the end, we were right to worry.

It was a clear turning point in my adolescence and a turning point for the nation. For the young women in my women's studies class, it would mean fundamental changes to our lives.

I was left-leaning in 2016, but I wasn't politically engaged. I grew up in a conservative rural town and didn't know how politics shaped my life. My politics were largely shaped by the Obama years and my naivety about how the world worked.

That changed when Donald Trump got elected president.

According to a new Gallup analysis, 40% of women ages 18-29 describe themselves as liberal/very liberal, compared with 25% of men in that age range and 27% of women 30 and older. Stances on abortion, race relations, gun violence and the environment have moved further left compared with a decade ago. I can’t say I’m surprised.

Trump, running for reelection, does not know what it was like to be a young woman living through his administration. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., does not know what it was like to have a fundamental right – the right to an abortion – taken away. None of the men with political power understand what they’ve put my generation of women through. Of course, it radicalized us. How could it not?

Loss of abortion rights was turning point for many

The loss of abortion rights nationwide was a turning point for many of us. For millions of young women, the loss of Roe v. Wade was a long-held fear that became a rallying point for midterms and the 2020 general election.

My generation watched as three conservative justices were added to the Supreme Court, including Brett Kavanaugh, who had been accused of sexual assault.

In 2022, we lost the right to reproductive freedom with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling. By 2023, my home state of North Carolina had implemented a 12-week abortion ban.

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The issue is often mischaracterized by Republicans and Trump, who has refused to say whether he would veto a national abortion ban if reelected.

According to the Gallup analysis, 60% of young women say abortion should be legal under all or most circumstances. That's up from 42% in the 2008-16 time period.

Racism and the idea of 'justice' helped shape our lives

As a college student, I saw photos of white supremacists carrying torches on the University of Virginia’s campus. In 2018, a student activist covered my university's Confederate monument with red ink and their own blood; the statue was pulled down by protesters that August.

As a young adult, I saw how the murder of George Floyd in 2020 in Minneapolis led people to the streets to protest racism and police brutality.

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Since the 2008-16 period, young women have increasingly said that they are worried a “great deal” about race relations. The Gallup analysis found a 24-point increase in young women who care about the issue between the Obama era and the past eight years.

My life in a state still grappling with its racist history led me to be more outspoken on matters of race and racial injustice.

Gen Z cares about climate change and gun violence

Young people are the ones who will live with the coming climate catastrophe. We are the ones inheriting the errors of the past and hurdling toward an uncertain future.

Gallup finds that 86% of young women say humans are responsible for global warming, and more now say we should prioritize the environment over economic growth. Young men also care more about the environment than they did in the Obama era, but the increase is less pronounced than that observed in young women.

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To me, it’s hard to ignore the fact that our summers are getting hotter and that major weather events are becoming more frequent.

Young women are also growing more liberal when it comes to gun control. Among those ages 18-29, 74% of us are now more likely to say that gun laws should be stricter, up from 58% during the Obama era.

This coincides with a rise in school shootings and an increase in mass shootings.

There have already been about 400 mass shootings this year, more than occurred during all of 2016. Republicans have continued to offer "thoughts and prayers" instead of actual policy change.

We are the generation that the mass shooting at Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999 bore. We practiced active shooter drills in school. We learned about Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 while sitting in a classroom. After the shooting at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, we marched. Of course we have shifted to the left when it comes to gun violence ? our lives, after all, were the ones on the line.

Ultimately, I find it unsurprising that young women are becoming more liberal. It might not last: Voters tend to get more conservative with age.

Even so, I hope that the anxious young women who filled my women's studies class in 2016, and all of the women whom Trump threatens, can find some agency in liberal policies and politicians who are willing to fight for them.

Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Sara Peque?o on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: OPINION: Young women are more liberal now. Obviously