# Political leanings of certain professions? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 10, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250 "2006-05-10T17:58:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/1 "2006-05-10T17:58:53Z")
I’m an urban planner. A liberal urban planner. In the field, that makes me completely normal. The majority of other planners I’ve met have ideological leanings that lean towards the left. At national conferences of the American Planning Association, the keynote speaker is often a prominent liberal. This year it was Mollly Ivans. A few years ago, it was Michael Moore. Yes, there’s conservative planners out there, but they’re in the minority. Even then, they tend to be more moderate or “third way,” while there are more than a few very vocal progressives in the profession. In my experience, it seems like engineers collectively lean towards the right, as do people working in the building and construction trades. Excepting the obvious - Baptist preachers, radio talk show hosts, women’s studies professors and the like – I’d like to hear about your observations with certain professions and the collective political leaning of their practitioners. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/2 "2006-05-10T19:59:39Z")
Every teacher in Michigan is Democrat. Well, not every teacher, but close. It’s to the point where “I hate Bush” posters are common in just about every teacher lounge I’ve been in. It’s assumed as well. I have teachers show me essays from students that are pro-Bush and they use them as jokes about how dumb some of the kids are…that they like Bush. As someone who is neither Republican or Democrat, its’ shocking to me how much power the Democrat party has over the children in Michigan. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/3 "2006-05-10T20:10:43Z")
I’ve found that attorneys run the gamut and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to whether they’re liberal or conservative based on the type of lawyer they are or where they work. The only two trends I’ve noticed (as a govt. lawyer) is that the agencies that handle finances tend to get slightly more conservative people, than say, the EPA. And people willing to take huge paycuts to work for non-profits all swing left on the pendulum. But I know plenty of die-hard leftists withering away at conservative law firms. I know moderate-to-conservatives working for public agencies (state and federal). ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/4 "2006-05-10T20:18:06Z")
In magazine publishing, the folks in editorial and production (art dept., prepress) tend to be liberal, while the folks in accounting and circulation tend to be more conservative. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/5 "2006-05-10T20:52:08Z")
Librarians tend to be left leaning, although there are some notable and prominent exceptions. Largely, though, our interests lie in speech and censorship issues, and in education. ---
**Author:** ![RickQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@RickQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickQ)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/6 "2006-05-11T01:40:35Z")
Psychologists tend to be liberal. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/7 "2006-05-11T01:47:41Z")
So do counselors and social workers. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/8 "2006-05-11T01:53:02Z")
[QUOTE=anu-la1979] I’ve found that attorneys run the gamut and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to whether they’re liberal or conservative based on the type of lawyer they are or where they work. [/QUOTE] I was going to say the same. Lawyers are all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/9 "2006-05-11T01:55:38Z")
I work in consulting, specifically business systems analysis. I don’t notice a huge lean but people tend to be logical and pretty well informed in general. I think there might be a lean to the right on business and economic issues and a lean towards the fairly tolerant on the social side. I have never met anyone in the field with a big socialist streak but there aren’t a lot of say, religious fundamentalists either. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/10 "2006-05-11T01:58:48Z")
I work in a museum and 90% of my co-workers are conservatives. (I can’t say for sure all museums are like this, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/11 "2006-05-11T02:07:33Z")
Senior management (Fortune 500) is definitely right leaning, with a disproportionately large number of globalist libertarians. I can think of precious few who would call themselves Democrats, especially Gore-Hillary Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/12 "2006-05-11T03:35:30Z")
Lissa-- what kind of museum? Working in fine arts (academia, though) this sounds very strange to me. I’m working as junior faculty at a Canadian university. . . sheesh. Guess. ---
**Author:** ![Hakuna\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hakuna\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hakuna_Matata)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/13 "2006-05-11T03:49:36Z")
I find that Architects in general tend to be more liberal than conservative but like any absolute statement I also know a few conservative Architects. But the vast majority I would say are liberal or lean that way. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/14 "2006-05-11T13:03:28Z")
Geographers: Human geographers (especially social theorists) tend to be flaming liberals, if not outright militant communists. (I’m exaggerating a bit…but you get the idea.) Physical geographers tend to be neutral to somewhat conservative, until they get into global warming, at which point many veer leftward. The GIS and remote sensing folks are pretty apolitical, although some might make conservative noises since their budgets are often linked to the military. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/15 "2006-05-11T13:26:07Z")
[QUOTE=capybara] Lissa-- what kind of museum? Working in fine arts (academia, though) this sounds very strange to me. [/QUOTE] General history-- we have everything from books to cars in our collection. (Think miniature Smithsonian.) This is the only museum in which I’ve worked, but my curator and director have said some of the other museums in which they’ve worked have been mostly conservative as well. It might have something to do with our geographic location-- rural Midwest. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/16 "2006-05-11T13:27:10Z")
Astronomers and physicists, like most of yer ivory-tower types, tend heavily toward the liberal. ---
**Author:** ![Coil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Coil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coil)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/17 "2006-05-11T13:50:55Z")
Economists tend to be more to the right on the [Political Compass](http://www.politicalcompass.org) scale, although the variation is large. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/18 "2006-05-11T14:39:59Z")
Foreign aid worker. Most lean very heavy to the left, I consider my-self a fairly centrist Democrat, so I seem conservative among my peers. There are a some conservatives in the financial/grant management positions and in the home office. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/19 "2006-05-11T15:20:07Z")
I work with a lot of engineers - they tend to be conservative. Well, mine do anyway - I can’t say about ALL engineers. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250/20 "2006-05-11T15:36:16Z")
Military folks tend to be quite conservative. My DH is ex-military and went into teaching. In a college town. Oops. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-leanings-of-certain-professions/356250.md?page=2)