 |
  |
 |
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||
HEAR
OUR VOICES THE SINGLE WOMEN GAP The majority of single women who do not vote say that candidates are more interested in getting elected than in improving the government, according to a recent survey by Women's Voices, Women Vote (WVWV). "These women are very competent," said Chris Desser, co-director of the San Francisco based non-partisan WVWV. "They are not looking for a handout. They're looking for a level playing field." Twenty-three-year-old Sarah Mitzel was pleased when her son, Leaf, asked, "Momma, what is peace?" Mitzel said the 3-year-old heard the word from adults with whom he interacts. "I don't listen to the news. I don't read the newspapers. I have no intention of voting," she said. "How we live is so much more complicated than politics. It is about how we relate to the world around us." Mitzel expressed confidence that her son will continue to learn peace as he grows. Mitzel is one of 22 million single women who did not vote in the 2000 federal election, one of the largest non-voting blocs in the country. These women have never been married or are divorced or widowed. Most earn less than $30,000 a year. Many are single mothers who work when their children are young. Some 62 percent are, like Mitzel, between the ages of 18 and 24. In Oregon, 32 percent of single women are not registered to vote. "These are not 'Sex and the City' voters," Desser said, exasperated with the mainstream media's "utter trivialization" of non-voting women. Desser's group, WVWV, has studied the single-women voting bloc in key states such as Florida, Washington and Oregon. "These women see themselves as strong, independent and are proud of the fact that they're making it on their own," she said. Media, political strategists and grassroots activists around the country are exploring how the presidential candidates can engage this group. Single women have been invisible for a long time, political organizations say. Susan Cundiff, program director of Eugene's Women's Action for New Directions (WAND), said she had "no idea so many women were still disenfranchised." Cundiff wants to mobilize young single women "if we can figure out how to connect and involve them," she said. Most of WAND's members are between 40 and 80 years of age. "It's not easy for us to locate younger women," Cundiff said. The organization registers voters at Saturday Market and Paul's Bicycle Way of Life and is developing the "Powder Room Project" to post voting information in public restrooms. Lane County League of Women Voter's Director Janet Culvert said that the organization has "not set out to target young voters." Young people in general seem to consider voting "inconvenient, not pertinent and not important," she said. "The issues may seem complex to them, but they're important to their futures. We're concerned that everyone who can vote does." The Lane County LWV distributes "They Represent You," a voter's guide to local, state and national representatives. The WVWV survey found that many women did not vote because they felt uninformed about the candidates and issues. "I definitely feel ignorant about politics," said 24-year-old Janna Stafford. "I don't spend much time researching or talking about politics, which does not make me feel empowered." Some journalists are treating the news that single women don't vote as "the flavor of the month," Desser said. An overview of media coverage shows use of a "dating scheme" to portray the relationship between single women and politicians. According to The San Francisco Chronicle article, "Self-Determination and the Single Woman," (5/18), politicians will engage single women if they can "get them to commit." The June 15 Village Voice cover story on what it called "the candidates' pitiful pitch for single women," describes the lives of New York single mothers — the long subway rides and the high cost of healthcare many endure. Yet "Awkward Kerry" and "Hopeless Bush" are illustrated as two white hands in suit sleeves holding out red roses. The WVWV survey, while useful in many respects, defines women by their marital status. Women who do not intend to marry because of personal philosophy or sexual orientation are not recognized. "We're talking about more mainstream women," Desser said. According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the gay, lesbian and bisexual vote comprises at least five percent of the general electorate. When one WVWV survey says that women are "delaying marriage, or are divorcing and not remarrying," it ignores a group of single women. THE CULTURAL CONTEXT Mobilizing the single women's vote is an idea that has taken Eugene by storm. Many feel that if more women voted, politicians would address more issues important to them.
"When you vote, the politicians listen to you," said Justin Barker, Eugene Canvas Director of the New Voters Project (NVP). A nationwide group, NVP registers non-voters and targets 18 to 24 year olds. The issues that most concern single women are those that directly affect their lives and the lives of their children. According to WVWV, single women want the government to provide affordable health care, improve education, ensure job security and protect the environment. "If single women vote, some of the key issues like education and health care reform will be in the forefront during the next four years," said Andrew McGuire, director of the Sequoia Leadership Center, a get-out-the-vote campaign targeting single women. WVWV found that 68 percent of married women versus 52 percent of single women voted in 2000. Married women tend to vote more conservatively while single women are more likely to be pro-peace and pro-choice. They support gay marriage more than their married counterparts. Central to engaging single women in politics is placing voting in what Desser calls its "cultural context." Making voting "as ordinary as going to the grocery store takes it out of the abstract," she said. NVP canvasser Sura Cox has registered several single mothers that "don't have time to be in political groups," she said. "They may feel isolated in their families and from one another." One WVWV summary concluded that, "social integration is one of the most important determinants of political participation." Stafford is planning to vote in the federal election for the first time because "friends have told me about their personal experiences hearing Kucinich speak." The WVWV survey found that single women who had volunteered in the last year were more likely to cast their ballot. If voting is understood as civic responsibility and has social support, single women might be more willing to vote. In Eugene, the cultural context for voting could sometimes be described as anti-voting. "When I hear the word politics," Mitzel said, "I think of it as something I'm fighting against." Mitzel's choice not to vote stems from a belief that "the United States democracy is not sustainable," she said. "Just like I would not support a farm that is not organic, I do not choose to support a system that is not sustainable." The choice to vote is a decision to participate in a political system. "Ideologically, the democratic process has very few flaws," said 25-year-old Lydia Bartholow. "In a capitalist society, however, the corporations and corporate rule ultimately make the decisions." According to Desser, a lot of single women "don't believe their vote matters in the face of corporations." Bartholow thinks that her ballot carries weight locally but does not vote in federal elections. "Voting doesn't do any harm," she said, "but it creates a façade of having a voice when you don't." A prison abolition activist with Break the Chains, Bartholow said, "We need to think about other ways we can make our voices heard." Other grassroots activists argue that the single-women vote could move politics to the left. Holly Knight of the Eugene chapter of Mainstreet Moms Oppose Bush (MMOB), spends most of her time when she has childcare working to mobilize unregistered women. She believes that "22 million single women can absolutely change the face of American politics." Sound familiar? The rift between non-voters such as Bartholow and the Eugene groups working to engage single women harks back to when women first gained the right to vote. The suffragettes argued that women are the more progressive sex. If women vote, they said, the government will have to protect human rights. Anarchic feminists such as Emma Goldman scoffed at the notion. In her 1917 essay, "The Tragedy of Women's Emancipation," Goldman wrote: "There is no hope even that woman, with her right to vote, will ever purify politics." She argued that politics is immoral because it is a "reflex of the business and industrial world." The government has changed since 1917. Laws are in place to support equal rights, higher quality labor conditions and women's health. Barker has registered several people through NVP that consider themselves anarchists. "I'm not so pro-government either," he said. "But I think voting is so essential because this is the system we have today." Furthermore, say some Eugeneans, women worked hard for the right to vote. "If young women understood that women's right to vote was wrenched from unwilling male hands perhaps they would be less likely to give it up," said Karen Luna, manager of Eugene's feminist bookstore, Mother Kali's Books. "I think it is hard for young people to look at pictures of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her 'sisters of suffrage' with their high collars and gray-haired buns and realize that these were tigresses who took a battle to the streets." NEW VOTERS Concern about the present political climate has caused many single women to register for the first time. "There are things I don't want to live to see," said 24-year-old Erin Rose Turner of Eugene, "and I need to vote against them." Several of Turner's friends choose not to vote for ideological reasons, she said, "and I would like to see their votes in this election." Wendy Kai, 29-year old single mother, cites her recent viewing of Michael Moore's film, Fahrenheit 9/11, and hearing Dennis Kucinich speak this spring as motivation to vote in November. "My son Elias is really into G.I. Joe," she said between waiting tables at Morning Glory Café. Kai said she was "horrified" watching the military recruitment scenes in the film. Although the issues of import to her may never be addressed, Kai said, "By not voting I support the system. I think that voting in numbers is one way for change to come about." Desser agrees, noting that 22 million votes "can absolutely make a difference in a country where 600 votes decided the last presidential election." If single women voted at the same rate as married women, there would be six million more ballots to count. On the other hand, 21-year-old Jen Lokajickova just registered for the first time but she is not planning to vote. "I don't have any proof that my vote counts," she said. To engage women who feel alienated from politicians and distrustful of the electoral system, the most effective voter registration and mobilization drives reach non-voters on a personal level while encouraging the message that "your vote counts." Groups that do this put voting in the single woman's cultural context. Mother Kali's Books is registering customers from their front desk and at the Eugene Pride Festival. Luna invited New Voters Project representative Terra Sorensen to train Mother Kali's staff on voter registration. "Our intention is to get as many voices heard as we can," Luna said. In an effort to target single women, NVP canvassers work with women's community centers such as Mother Kali's and Womenspace, stand outside grocery stores and attend festivals. Mothers can be particularly pre-occupied, Barker said. "Sometimes I'm talking to a woman with a baby in one hand and groceries in the other," he said. He gets right to the point. "I tell them that if they vote, things will get better." NVP intends to register 18,000 young Eugeneans by Oct. 12. Barker is full of energy and excited about the project. "We're talking to everyone we see," he said from the 300-square foot office he shares with 15 other NVP employees. The organization is involved with several local churches, the UO Student Vote Coalition and other Eugene groups. At the Oregon Country Fair, NVP registered 880 people. The San Francisco-based Sequoia Leadership Center is opening an office in Eugene under the direction of Jen Rygas, who worked on Kitty Piercy's successful mayoral campaign. The organization sends volunteers door-to-door to speak with unregistered single women. "What works best is meeting women face-to-face," Sequoia Director Andrew McGuire said. "First we are going to register single women. Then later we'll go back to them, doing a get-out-the-vote campaign." Holly Knight describes herself as the "self-appointed coordinator of the Eugene MMOB." She laughs at the lingo, but Knight is serious about Mainstreet Moms Oppose Bush and doing all she can to elect John Kerry. "Kerry is a candidate worth fighting for," Knight said, pulling out a homemade brochure that includes Kerry's voting record ratings from such groups as the League of Conservation Voters (96 percent), NARAL and Planned Parenthood (100 percent), the NAACP (100 percent) and the National Education Association (100 percent). A mother of three in California started MMOB. Through the organization's "Adopt-A-Swing-State" campaign, individuals in swing states such as Oregon send personalized letters and voter registration cards to unregistered women. The names come from a national database compiled by WVWV.
"We're 'moms' because we target mothers, not because all of our letters writers are moms," Knight told me, although most of the people involved are parents. Some writers ask their children to illustrate the letters they're sending. Knight has divided an estimated 250 letter writers in the Eugene-Springfield area into groups of four or five, each headed by a captain. The small group format is a familiar form of grassroots organizing. "I can give away 500 names a night," Knight said, which is sometimes faster than the addresses arrive from MMOB's central office in California. Knight estimates having distributed 5,300 names of unregistered moms since joining MMOB June 3. She has also written several pamphlets and has financed the Eugene action, although she is now fundraising. I asked if her daughter, Rosemary, has decorated any of her own letters. Knight smiled and said, "I haven't had the chance to write any." The dialogue between voter registration activists and non-voters includes many voices. A woman may choose to vote in support of a candidate. Another may vote to select the figurehead of a system she fights. Another may choose not to vote. "The work I see myself doing," Mitzel said, "is open, honest communication with human beings on this planet."
Women's Voices, Women Vote (WVWV): www.WVWV.org Women's Action for New Directions (WAND): www.wand.org Susan Cundiff, Eugene Program Director, 344-6443 League of Women Voters of Lane County: 81 E. 14th Ave., Eugene, 343-7917, e-mail: league@lwvlc.org New Voters Project: www.newvotersproject.orgJustin Barker, Eugene canvas director, 338-8141 Mainstreet Moms Oppose Bush (MMOB), www.themmob.comHolly Knight, Eugene coordinator, 344-9948, e-mail: tomholly@willamette.net Mother Kali's Books: Open 10-6, Monday through Saturday, 720 E. 13th Suite 102, 343-4864, email: info@motherkalis.com UO Student Vote Coalition: Amy DuFour, 346-0628 NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon: www.prochoiceoregon.org,www.oregonwomenvote.com (available Aug. 18), (503) 223-4510 ext.14 Emma Goldman's work can be found at Mother Kali's Books, the Eugene Public Library and on the Internet. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
