On Election Day, Girl Power Has Chance to Influence the Future

Author: Glenda Holste

Published: June 4, 2004

As Rep.-elect Stephanie Herseth of South Dakota made her way forward through the crowd of supporters Tuesday night in Sioux Falls, a 6-year-old gave the new congresswoman a sign celebrating "Girl Power."

You betcha.

When women vote, women win.

And when women vote, issues long identified as important to us rise higher on the public to-do lists.

Several surveys and the U.S. Census Bureau's report on pay inequity reported this week reinforce why mobilizing women voters is such a powerful idea this election year.

Item: The Census report, using data gathered in 2000 on the previous year's employment information, found that women workers made less than men in almost every occupation.

Item: The AFL-CIO's 2004 survey to identify concerns of working women reported that 61 percent of women respondents want stronger equal pay laws. That's up from 58 percent two years ago. Of the women surveyed, 65 percent said they think it is important for lawmakers to pass stronger measures against job discrimination. Across all age groups and regions, working women listed affordable, secure health care as their biggest worry.

Item: The Pioneer Press-MPR poll that showed a statistical dead heat between presidential candidates George Bush and John Kerry also showed a gender gap steady with historical trends. In the poll, 46 percent of men who are likely to vote said President Bush would get that vote. Sen. John Kerry had the backing of 40 percent of the men polled. Among women likely voters, Kerry had 47 percent of them and Bush 37 percent.

On issues that loom huge because of the Iraq war, gender differences are huge, too. In the Pioneer Press-MPR poll, 34 percent of men said they would support a military draft to help fight in Iraq. Among women, 18 percent said they would support the draft. On the flip side of the question, 59 percent of men said they would oppose the draft and 71 percent of women expressed opposition.

The big gaps, however, emerge over attitudes that go to the moral questions about war. Among men, 31 percent agreed that disclosure of American soldiers' treatment of Iraqi prisoners was not disturbing, just an acceptable part of war. Among women, 17 percent agreed. Among men, 88 percent said the prisoner treatment was disturbing but should not deter the pursuit of the Iraqi mission. Among women, the figure dropped to 72 percent. The disclosure should end U.S. involvement in Iraq immediately? Among men, 5 percent said yes. Among women, 13 percent said yes.

Item: The Tax Policy Center and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a study analyzing that when the federal government decides to pay the piper for running up big deficits and retaining tax cuts made over the last three years, the middle class and poor will get skinned. Because fewer women enjoy high-income profiles, you can draw the inferences. "Basically, the bottom 80 percent of households will end up paying for substantial tax cuts for the top fifth of the population," said William G. Gale of the Tax Policy Center and a co-author of the report.

As matters of voter mobilization, of course, the segments of women organizers are trying to energize differs. Not all women voters are alike and certainly to not vote as a bloc (a fear thrown up 100 years ago by men who controlled the lawmaking to deny us the franchise).

But in a country and time when political polarities make mobilization more powerful than persuasion of the vanishing "swing'' voters, women have a historic opportunity to influence the future.

Girl power has grown up.