Amid an election-defining gender gap that is now the widest this year, it is already narrowing presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump has become even closer.

But the gender voting gaps in the 2024 election are not just cross-tabulation in a poll. They reflect differing views on larger social issues, such as gender equality in the US. More directly, they highlight differences in how candidates are viewed, with more women saying only Harris has the cognitive health to serve and more men thinking Trump would be a “strong man.” leader.”

Here’s an example. Men are more likely to say they want to promote efforts in the US gender equality has gone too far lately. If they do, they will vote overwhelmingly in favor Trump.

Women are more likely to say these efforts don’t go far enough. The voters who say this are overwhelmingly in favor Harris.

And as for this assessment of the candidates, women are as much as 10 points more likely than men to say that only Kamala Harris has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president, and Trump does not.

Men are less likely than women to think Harris will be a strong leader.

But a significant majority of men think Trump will be a strong leader.

Of both men and women who think Harris would be a strong leader, a quarter say this is the case because she is a woman. For those who think Harris won’t be a strong leader; almost 1 in 5 say this is at least partly because they are a woman.

Overall it comes down to an even – and an even more exciting – match. It is collectively tied with the composite battleground states, and Harris has only a +1 in national voting preference. (Harris was once at +3 in the battleground state in September, but that dropped to +1 two weeks ago. Trump has gradually erased a four-point national lead that Harris had after their debate.)

In individual CBS estimates of the specific battlefieldsit is also effectively bound. For context, in recent history, Democrats have needed larger national polling to imply competitive Electoral College chances in the battlegrounds because so many of their national votes came from larger, safely blue coastal states. But this year, at least so far, we’re seeing a different pattern in which battlefields align more closely with national ones.

Addressing the concerns of men and women

On balance, voters say women face more discrimination than men today, and women are especially likely to say this. But men who think men face at least some discrimination (and half of them do) are voting for Trump. Women who think women face discrimination are overwhelming for Harris.

There is also a gender gap when it comes to who thinks they will get the attention of the campaign.

Most men think Trump pays the right amount of attention to men’s concerns, but many think Harris pays too little.

Women, on the other hand, say Harris pays enough attention to women’s concerns, but don’t think Trump does.

A good four in ten women think that Trump’s campaign pays too much attention to men.

But the percentage who say the US is “ready to elect a black woman as president” has risen, and this majority includes people who vote for Harris and many who do not.

Approaches to governance

There is a lot of talk about this in this campaign How the candidates could lead as president, and not just on policy. And we see differences by age, and some also by gender, but many by party.

When asked how best to solve America’s problems, voters mainly call for cooperation between the parties. Some – often the more ideological partisans – think that one party running the government would be best.

Trump voters are twice as likely as Harris voters to call for “one strong leader to do what they think is best.”

Younger voters – and especially younger men – are relatively more likely to say that the country needs that.

Trump continues to win the votes of people who believe the American political system needs to be completely rebuilt.

The economy – and how it still underpins Trump

Possibly good news for Harris is that people say they are judging her more based on her own economic plans than on the economic performance of the Biden administration.

She has a bit to do with his sharp opinions about who would make people better off financially.

But that lead persists nonetheless, and it has stalled in breaking Trump’s lead among voters who say the economy is an important factor to them.

A large majority continue to say they remember the Trump economy as good, so Harris has not caused voters to reconsider or reconsider that memory.

People are divided over whether Trump’s policies specifically helped them financially during the pandemic, and over the cuts to voting numbers.

A few observations on what has changed since Harris had more of an edge last month:

Perhaps one of the biggest indicators of why this race remains so close: Harris is doing well when people consider abortion a top issue, especially among women who think so. And it’s a big problem for half, but she hasn’t been able to get many more voters to see it as a top problem over the course of the campaign. It hovers in the low 50s range for those who call it a major factor.

This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted with a representative sample of 2,161 registered voters interviewed nationally between October 23 and 25, 2024. The sample was weighted by gender, age, race and education based on the US Census American Community Survey and the US Census Current Population Survey, as well as past voting. Respondents were selected because they were representative of registered voters nationwide. The margin of error for registered voters is ±2.6 points. Battlefields are AZ, GA, MI, NC, NV, PA and WI.