Unmarried Women: This Election's Holy Grail
During the run-up to the 2004 election, I traveled around the country in support of John Kerry. Day after day on the road, I was blown away by the unbelievable women I met. From Hollywood to Hoboken, I saw first hand that this country is made-up of amazing women who do their best to make their lives and the lives of those around them better. These women care deeply about health care, the War, national security, education and the environment, and they have the potential to bring these issues to the forefront of political debate.
Yet, in the last presidential election, 20 million eligible unmarried women did not vote, making unmarried women the largest group of non-voters in the country. For whatever reason (and there are many) they have opted out of the electoral process. In part I think this is because they do not feel that those running for office are communicating with them. In part it is because these women do not realize the power they have to communicate with those seeking higher office by voting in large numbers. If they use their voices they will have a profound effect on who becomes the next resident of this country.
The truth is these 20 million women have become the Holy Grail for both parties. For the first time in history, the majority of US households are headed by someone who is not married and a whopping 24% of the US population is unmarried women. The face of our nation is truly changing.
Everyone is talking to them now. But are they listening?
Women's Voices. Women Vote has been listening to these women and finding innovative ways to motivate them since 2000 when they began trying to understand why so many single women weren't voting. This year I took part in their new voter mobilization PSA campaign called "20 Million Reasons".
Today we are one year, almost to the day, away from the '08 presidential election and Women's Voices Women Vote is kicking off this national campaign to inspire and activate unmarried women to register and vote.
Watch the first in a series of provocative and patriotic public service announcements I participated in from WVWV here:
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A man and a woman are retired and driving across the country. The man is an extremely successful former CEO of a fortune 500 company, recognized around the world.
Upon arriving in the town his wife grew up in they stop for gas. The wife realizes that her high school sweetheart is pumping the gas. The two exchange pleasantries and the wife and husband go on the their way.
After they pull out of the gas station the husband turns to the wife and says aren't you glad you married me and not him given my success in life? The wife turns to the husband and says if I'd married him he would have been the CEO.
If you want it down right...ge
Got some mail this weekend from "The League of Women Voters". I am going to join it. On Friday, I attended one of the "One Year Out From Election Day" house parties going on all over the country. I was moved almost to tears of the crosswalk of people who came to the event hosted by a local individual here in Florida, in a private home. Thanks for a good post.
The single moms I know (and all of the married stay-home mom’s, for that matter)
1. Don’t know where or how to register to vote-I still have my maiden name as my registered name and I’ve been married for 10 years, what’s up with that?
2.Don’t have babysitting to get to the polls- Some sort of networking babysitting service the day of election might be one way to help in that department.
3. Stay silent in fear of ignorance
If we have more places available for moms to register (I suggested the diaper isle at Wal-Mart and Target) maybe job #1 could be accomplished of getting more people to even register.
Registering to vote was number one priority for our two college attending daughters. They are too busy to focus on boyfriends and this will likely be the way things are for some time to come. They're very aware of how hard it is for women on their own and know they are lucky to have two, caring parents and a home to come to. However, they are also very aware of what the cost of their education has become and the burden we all share thanks to our current social focus on war and imprisonment and not on options for the poor and diplomacy.
They haven't made up their minds yet but they are listening and hearing little that is encouraging.
We're happy to have such caring daughters to fill our shoes one day. It's a shame we've all left them such a mess to clean up. As stewards for our world we should be have solved a lot of the problems we had and not created so many more for them to deal with.
Rick
Yep, the Democratic party is now the party of women. And for every article like this, another of the few males left that will vote Democratic leave the party. Since a majority of women vote democratic, don't you wonder why every election is still close ? Because you keep sending negative messages to men and continue to drive them out of your party.
Thanks Christine,
Another former Democratic male.
PS If Nancy Pelosi is giving us a preview of women in charge, I think your expectations are a bit high.
Thanks again for reminding me, as a single male, why I don't want Hillary!
She is against Offshoring or Overseas Outsourcing but when she looks the other way
(turning the coin) she is FOR the use of H 1-B Visas!
Will someone please explain WHY?
Both take American Jobs and hand them over to Foreign workers!
At 64 I am shocked that I am still a second class citizen and we are still fighting for the right to choose what we do with our bodies (abortion rights), for healthcare for everyone including mental health, for elimination of poverty, for education, for parity pay and to stop the senseless killing in war. Ladies, it is time for us to vote in our own self interest. These are not just women's issues they are the issues that intelligent people everywhere know are key to a good life.
Unmarried,single women don't vote simply because they have very little precious time between going to a plastic surgeon, a tatoo parlor or to the mall to exhibit their falsies, a form of patriotic endeavor since they contribute their entire pay check to our capitalistic, consuming crazy system.
QUESTION: How many of these "unmarried" women are cohabitating with a man and raising a family, and are in essence, married?
I would say that for the group of single women who don't vote, it's not because they are women, necessarily, but because they feel it makes no difference who they vote for, that is, politicians will do nothing to change circumstances "on the ground." The disparity in wages will not be equalized. Food costs, gasoline, utilities will rise; men will pay for war instead of health care; children will not be educated, etc.
As a single woman who participated in the women's movement, who fought employers for (almost) equal pay and won, who has made my own life, I am apalled at the backlash against women that has occurred over the last 30-40 years: a never-ending onslaught that uses the aspirations of women to sell shame in the form of cosmetic surgery, thousands of diets, clothing, pharmaceuticals, magazines and tired old advice on how to please a man.
American women are expected to be 13 year-old sex kittens until their dying day, then are shunted aside just when they should be contributing wisdom and good judgement to society. How FEW women there have been in Congress and the Senate. Third World countries have elected more women to power, including presidents and prime Ministers.
Unfortunately, the few women who are elected in the U.S. usually turn out to be Good Ol'Boys in drag.
Why women should vote for Hillary
1. If you are a single mom and you can't afford to take your kids to the doctor, Hillary will fix this by getting her healthcare package passed.
2. If you are a woman who is earning 23 percent less than the man sitting next to you in the same job (which is the case across the board in America), Hillary will endorse judges and laws that sufficiently work to stop this discrimination.
3. If you want affordable energy, vote for Hillary as she is not married to the oil barons and will work to provide alternative energy. You won't go broke driving to work.
4. Hillary won't start wars for OIL. Her foreign policy will be based on doing what is right----not what makes the oil barons rich.
5. Hillary won't tax you more than the billionaires.
6. Hillary will send a loud message to all the male chauvenist pigs in this country that women should not be used as punching bags.
I could go on and on--------but I hope I have made my point.
way to go Christine!!! lOVED THIS ARTICLE.
What are you working on now? I miss you on the tube!!!!
"In 1915, Alice Duer Miller published this parody of the critics of woman suffrage efforts.
Why We Don't Want Men to Vote
• Because man's place is in the army.
• Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it.
• Because if men should adopt peaceable methods women will no longer look up to them.
• Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms, and drums.
• Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them unfit for government".
okay, it's a great video with emotional grabbers. but why does it seem like a Hillary campaign ad instead of a push for women voters to get out and vote? so I think, unless that was its intention, that it missed the boat.
if you want a two-fer, think John and Elizabeth Edwards. he's got the best programs, is the most honest in an inherently dishonest profession, and she is THE class act of female brains, power, and values in the whole political arena. so if you want her, vote for him.
The ladies should be voting Ron Paul, its time to get back to the constitution, get rid of the corporatist government, equal treatment under the law for all races and sexes.
Hillary Clinton is a CFR member, here is a short video on the CFR, Clinton is also a close friend of the Bush's.
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Clinton 2003 WMD lies, people knew it was bull then and Clinton still supported it. Clinton said she carefully reviewed the evidence for war but now she says she didn't know anything. She could not be too smart if millions of people who didn't have the intelligence could smell a rat she couldn't..
http://you
This commentary and many others before and thousnads to follow are just covert attempts for the Hillary Camp. i am starting to resurrect some hope that everyone will pay attention to the coersion going on by the media and big money to shove Guiliani and Hillary into the White house and continue the Elitists and Fascist takeover off our Nation. Wholesale change getting rid of mass numbers of incumbants all across the board and without party preference is a must. We have to elect people who we know that come out of our own neighborhoods and not give a "career" to politicians that choose Washington D.C. to hide in and Lobbyists to enrich them. Clean the slate in 2008! No incumbants OR their Family Members either!
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