A new national poll points towards a gender gap over same-sex marriage.

According to new numbers released Monday morning from Gallup, 50 percent of Americans say same-sex marriages should be legal. But break it down by gender, and 56 percent of women say same-sex couples should be legally allowed to marry, but only 42 percent of men feel the same way.

The survey also points to a geographic divide, with a majority in the East, Midwest and West in support of legal same-sex marriages, but only four-in-10 in the South feeling the same way.

The poll also indicates the predictable generational gap, with younger voters more supportive of same-sex marriage and older voters opposed, and partisan divide, with nearly two-thirds of Democrats and a majority of independent voters, but only one-in-five Republicans, in support of such marriages.

The Gallup poll was conducted May 3-6, before the president's announcement last Wednesday that he personally supports same-sex marriage, with 1,024 adults nationwide questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points.