Young women voters are focused on a long list of issues
In the last two presidential elections, women have outvoted men by about 10 million ballots.
A group of women in Wilton, Connecticut have created “They Voted, I Voted,” stickers celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. The stickers include portraits of Connecticut suffragists. Digital versions can be downloaded from the Secretary of the State’s website.
It’s clear that the women’s vote in any election is important. In each of the last two presidential elections, women have outvoted men by about 10 million ballots, according to The Atlantic.
With just days left in the 2020 election season, President Donald Trump has been campaigning to try and win over women’s votes.
“Suburban women, will you please like me?,” he asked at a Johnstown, Pennsylvania campaign rally on Oct. 13.
“We’re getting your husband's back to work,” Trump said at a Lansing, Michigan campaign rally on Tuesday. “And everybody wants it.”
That remark led to many women to speak out on social media against the idea that only husbands need to get back to work. Many women don’t rely on a husband to support themselves or their families. In the past year, women have been hit by unemployment at higher rates than men. Nearly 6 million women have lost their jobs since the coronavirus pandemic began, the Washington Post reported.
Women and men have different lived experiences, which shape women’s awareness of problems and their preferences for solving them, explained Jennifer M. Piscopo in Smithsonian Magazine. Women tend to be interested in a wide range of issues when casting their vote.
Grace McFadden, a UConn sophomore majoring in English, said that while the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment is an impressive milestone in 2020, there’s still more work to be done.
“100 years feels like a long time to us, but all things considered it’s relatively short in the context of history,” McFadden said. “It reminds me of the issues with suffrage this country has had historically, and continues to have.”
Gladi Suero, a communications and journalism major who works as a programming coordinator at the UConn Women’s Center, echoed the sentiment that there is a lot of reflection right now around women’s rights and voting.
“I think it’s important to acknowledge that though there aren’t any legal barriers for people who hold certain identities to vote, voter suppression is still very real and it is affecting so many marginalized people today,” Suero said.
McFadden and Suero said immigrant rights, healthcare, and reproductive rights were among the issues that mattered most to them.
“I think I am in a difficult place right now because I don’t think either of the two major candidates represent the values that I care deeply about.” said Suero, adding that she is also concerned about student loan forgiveness and racial inequality.
“Probably the most pressing [issue] is how the government will deal with coronavirus. Beyond that, any number of issues affect how I cast my vote,” McFadden said. “It’s important to me that the U.S. extricates itself from Middle Eastern and Latin American conflicts. I’d [also] love to see some actual movement in terms of climate change so we don’t all die.”
Earlier this month, a Women’s March was held in Washington D.C., where crowds formed to honor the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and to protest the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
A hundred years after women were given the right to vote, Suero said it is important women continue to use their votes and voices in elections.
“Women could continue using their voice and power by directly helping communities and not just relying on the politicians to do the work,” Suero said.
McFadden sees protests like the Women’s March as just one way women can use their voice.
“I’m a leftist, and we use the phrase ‘read theory, do praxis’ a lot,” McFadden said. “Essentially, the philosophy of educating yourself and then applying that education. Educating others is also very, very important.”