Data from NBC News Exit votes in 10 key states ET showed large gender gaps among the candidates as of 7 p.m. ET Wednesday: Among men, who make up 47% of the electorate, Harris won 42% of the vote and Trump won 55%. 53 percent of women, who make up 53 percent of the electorate, voted for Harris and 45 percent for Trump.

When broken down by race and education, the gender gap showed even wider divisions in some cases: 91% of black women voted for Harris, 7% for Trump, and 57% of college-educated white women voted against Harris gave. The rate of people voting for Trump is 41%.

But only 35% of white women without a college degree voted for Harris, while 63% voted for Trump.

“There’s an educational divide in this country that’s become much more pronounced in terms of voting behavior,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research, who conducted the final pre-election NBC News poll with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies. . “Yes, abortion is a really fundamental issue from an electoral standpoint, but when you look specifically at white women and non-college-educated white women, inflation, cost of living, and other issues are weakening her lead among those voters.”

A majority of voters in the exit poll (65%) said they supported legalizing abortion, and 93% of all voters said they had more confidence in Harris on abortion, compared with just 5% who had confidence in Trump. But only 14 percent of voters said abortion was the most important issue for their vote when asked to choose among five issues. The most pressing issue for most voters was the economy, with 32% ranking it first.

Harris became the second woman Trump defeated in the presidential race. Saying that this does not mean that Americans are not ready for a female president, Walsh pointed out that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016.

But he added that Harris faces an uphill battle; especially since Biden has little time to explain his stance on all issues after announcing his withdrawal from the race.

“A woman of color running for this job completely disrupts every stereotype of who can lead, and she had less than 200 days to do it,” he said.