THE RELIGIOUS CONSULTATION
on population, reproductive health & ethics

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (USA), July 25, 2004

Op Ed: Women are a Huge Political Power - It's Time They Are Treated As Such

By Ellen R. Malcolm

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned or a woman taken for granted. This 17th-century adage - with a modern twist - should be taken as words to the politically wise in this critical election year. As was clearly demonstrated by nearly 1 million women who took their anger over reproductive rights to the streets of Washington, D.C., this spring, lawmakers and candidates cannot take women voters for granted - and, in fact, must court women's votes with all the fervor they can muster if they hope to win in this election year.

EMILY's List, the nation's leading political action network for women, has been working for almost two decades to help women get motivated, get involved and get elected. We have cultivated a tremendously rich body of knowledge about women voters nationwide, especially in key states where the presidential election will be decided, like Washington. All our polling and qualitative research points to a simple fact of the political landscape: Women, more than any other group, have the power to choose our country's leaders, from the White House to the Statehouse.

In every battleground state on the path to the presidency, women make up the majority of registered voters and turn out in greater numbers than men. With that kind of electoral clout, women can change the face of power in our nation - and the candidates know it. Now we must act on it.

The gender gap, a factor in every presidential election since 1980, reflects the differences in the voting patterns of men and women. Though the gap has fluctuated over time, its meaning has been consistent. On the issues that women care about - education, health care, job creation and the economy - women trust Democrats more than Republicans to fight for their priorities. Their trust in Democrats to protect them and their families is seen in a broad range of polling and at the voting booth. In 2000, both nationally and in Washington state, about 58 percent of Al Gore's support came from women. In key battleground states like Florida and Ohio, that number reached 60 percent.

EMILY's List recently conducted a national Women's Monitor Poll (3,827 voters; margin of sampling error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points) that showed the gender gap at 18 points. That's huge - comparable with the 1996 (17 points) and 2000 (22 points) presidential elections. Though President Bush and Sen. John Kerry were tied overall in a recent Gallup study of voters, there was an extraordinary 35-point gender gap. Bush led by 18 points among male likely voters while Kerry led among women by a 17-point margin. And while the gap has narrowed in recent polls, it's not because women are warming to Bush - it's because men are saying they are more likely to vote for Kerry.

All this polling adds up to one fact: Women make up the majority of the Democratic base vote, and a critical part of the swing vote both parties need to win in 2004.

Women's support for Democrats is most pronounced among college-educated voters; in fact, according to EMILY's List research, women with advanced degrees have become one of the Democratic Party's most reliable voting blocs, along with union and African American voters. As for swing voters - that narrow slice of the electorate that will create the margin of victory - EMILY's List research shows that women make up 55 percent of the persuadable target market.

And when those persuadable women look at what has happened to their lives and the lives of their families over the last three years, Bush has much to answer for. Despite his attempts to appeal to women by wrapping his conservative agenda in "compassionate" clothing, Bush's approval ratings among women have plummeted to an all-time low, showing how much they believe he has failed on the issues that matter to them.

Bush's policies have already wiped out our hard-gained surpluses, returned the nation to deficit spending, endangered Social Security and dramatically cut critical social services for children, families and seniors. One year into the Bush administration, more than 1 million jobs were lost and about 2.6 million more people became unemployed.

Women in Congress, sensitive to the needs of working women and families, are leading the fight against the Bush agenda. While Bush pushed the so-called Family Time Flexibility Act, which would force employees to take comp time off rather than be paid for working overtime, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., fought to increase funding for job training and to expand markets for Washington's agricultural industry. When Bush slashed funding for his much-touted No Child Left Behind Program, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., fought back and persuaded the Senate to restore $2 billion in funding for our children's education. While Bush offered little but hollow rhetoric in his Medicare prescription dug plan, Attorney General Christine Gregoire investigated and sued drug companies for illegally manipulating the price and availability of their products.

The change in our national debate and growing political muscle of women is in part due to the rising number of women in elected office. Before EMILY's List was founded in 1985, no Democratic woman had ever been elected to the U.S. Senate in her own right, no woman had ever been elected governor of a large state and the number of Democratic women in the U.S. House had declined to 12 - a mere three percent of the chamber's 435 members.

In the nine elections since EMILY's List began, we have helped elect 11 Democratic women senators, 55 members of Congress and seven governors. The growth of women elected leaders has been particularly strong in Washington state.

Washington leads the nation in electing women, with the highest percentage of women in the Legislature, a majority-female Supreme Court and two outstanding women U.S. senators (one of only three states that can make such a claim). Without women serving at every level of office in Washington and across this country, many of the programs and services that are critical to our lives and our economy would have never made it into the public debate, let alone into the law books.

The consequences of Bush's agenda on women and families are real, and the political price to the GOP could soon become evident - if women leaders and women voters fight back. As this president rolls back the clock on women's rights, civil liberties, economic prosperity and the environment, women must and will step up to fight for the values and priorities that protect our rights, our families and our children.

Bottom line: Women are more likely to trust Democrats, and particularly Democratic women, to fight for their priorities, and with good reason. But Democrats can't win in 2004 without active support from women voters. Women must get involved, vote, volunteer and run for office at every level of government - as they have done here - to make sure their views on the issues are heard in voting booths, boardrooms, factories, our homes and our legislatures.

This past spring in the other Washington, hundreds of thousands of women converged to protest these policies that have done so much harm to them and their families. They also went to Washington, D.C., to celebrate their power and demonstrate their strength in numbers. It was a tremendous sight - but an even sweeter sight will be the march of women to the polls Nov. 2. Women must take our fight to the floor of the Congress, to the halls of the state legislatures and to every voting booth in this nation. We must make our vote count and our voice be heard.

Because, as we know at EMILY's List, when women vote, women win.

NOTES: Ellen R. Malcolm is the president of EMILY's List, which supports pro-choice Democratic women candidates.

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