The Need to Vote

"Nearly 19 million young women between the ages of 18 and 34 didn't vote in the 2000 election, a number nearly equivalent to 20 percent of all Americans who actually voted for a presidential candidate."

This is the first sentence in the foreword to Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner's book The F-Word: Feminism in Jeopardy. The book, which I have not quite completed, goes on to discuss the millions of reasons why women should vote.

As it stands now, young women (and men too) do not vote. Since they do not bring big numbers to the voting booths, politicians don't cater to them with their campaigns and platforms. 

But if we were voting, if that 19 million young women went out on Nov. 8 and cast a vote, think of the changes that could happen! If we were creating a consistent, voting demographic, politicians would have to start paying attention to what we want from them. 

Women's issues are rarely the hot topics of political discussion (except for abortion, and that topic seems to often be argued by men). Rarely do we hear the wage gap, the second shift, or the lack of family leave policies discussed on the nightly news (if we're even watching the news to begin with). But if these issues aren't being dealt with, if women continue to keep their voices and opinions out of the arena, then political decisions will continue to be made by men with men's interests in mind.

The personhood amendment is just one example of policy being made without young people's input or interests. Based on what I've seen and heard in the past few weeks, most young people are against the personhood amendment, regardless of their stance on abortion. Most young people today are aware of, and a part of in one way or another, a sexually-active-before-marriage culture, and understand the threats to birth control and contraceptives that the personhood amendment makes. But, I wonder, how many of these young people will actually make it to their voting location on November 8? 

If we want to make true feminist changes in this country, young women and men have to start voting. Consistently. This means we also have to start paying attention to laws being passed, candidates running for office, opinions of different politicians, and much more. We have to truly think about what we want out of life, the best ways to meet those needs, and the politicians who are working toward those goals. 

If we want feminism (and women) to be successful, we have to step up and add numbers to the voter turnout. Every election.

And we can start with voting no for the personhood amendment on November 8.



**For more reading on this topic, I recommend The F-Word: Feminism in Jeopardy: Women, Politics and the Future by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner.