Study by WomenMatter Shows Neither Political Party Connecting with Women

On Thursday, October 27,th Dr. Nancy Bauer, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of WomenMatter, revealed new findings about women and how they are participating in the body politic which show that, "the bottom line is: they are not." Furthermore, the research shows that while we are voting in greater numbers, for millions of women-- Republican, Democrat and Independent-- the process of government is an abstraction. It is not relevant to our daily reality. In short, women don’t view the political system as a tool that we can use to improve our lives.

Both as women and as citizens, these results deserve a closer look. Women make up 52% of the vote, but we are not acting like a majority. Across the board, women are failing to link our own expertise from our daily experiences to the policies or issues of either party.

In fact, we are quite possibly the one group of voters, or constituency, which really can make a difference in shaping policy if we put our minds to it. Women need to respect and value our own life experience and our knowledge of what works and recognize that all government does is set standards and spend tax dollars on the same things we are concerned with in our daily lives. Then we need to take that knowledge, and take action.

Gathering the Data for the Study- Understanding Politics through Oral History

In 2004 WomenMatter wanted to find out how women were thinking about their lives and if and how their lives relate to politics. We at WomenMatter set out to study women in the heat of the presidential election when women were being bombarded by political messages from all the campaigns. Beginning in July 2004, through the first two weeks of August, WomenMatter sent two researchers to talk to women in 5 swing states: Ohio, Oregon, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Florida. The researchers conducted in depth, face-to-face interviews -- ranging from one to two hours -- with 75 women from diverse political, racial, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.

In the anthropological section of the study, the interviewers simply asked each woman to describe her life. WomenMatter wanted to ascertain if women would describe themselves in the context of the presidential election or if the political process figured in their thinking about themselves. At the end of each interview, the researchers asked each woman to fill out a political survey. The survey asked whether they thought about politics or talked about politics, whether they voted or sent money to a candidate.

A Totally Female Perspective

What the researchers learned from the oral histories was first of all, that women see the world from a totally female perspective. Whether black or white, educated or uneducated, rich or poor, working woman or volunteer, women are independent, proud, practical, pragmatic and not dependent on their partners. The results of the study show that women take pride in achieving and do not see ourselves as victims. In fact, we do very well with whatever life has dealt us. We are not afraid or angry. Women accept what life brings with resilience and flexibility. We take responsibility for making our lives work and we know how to make our lives work. For women, it’s not about winning. It is about getting things done.

But what we don’t tend to see is the parallel between what we are doing in our daily lives and what government does. This is precisely where there is a disconnect.

Claiming our Majority Status- Voting and Beyond

Through our interviews, WomenMatter also learned that women don’t like sound bites as a way to get political information. Women want details! And we were not getting details from the political messages we were hearing.

However, it was clear from the women’s life stories that the philosophies of BOTH parties resonate with women-- the Republican Party has traditionally emphasized independence and individual responsibility, while the Democrats have focused on equality and collective responsibility. There is little middle ground between the two parties’ messages and the differences play out in how Democrats and Republicans approach the issues that matter most to women--- jobs, healthcare, education, security, fair courts and the environment. As a result, the women’s vote split.

While large numbers of women showed up at the polls, in many cases we were uninformed recipients of the political messages we were receiving. We were persuaded to vote, but returned to deal with our lives, still convinced that government is irrelevant to us.

What Next?

We at WomenMatter believe from our research that if the parties wish to really reach women, they will have to risk giving detailed explanations of the facts and costs of each policy and show how women’s personal lives will actually improve when government sets the standards. Women want to know specifically how our tax dollars will be used.

Each party will have to match their policies to the facets of women’s lives: healthcare, education, jobs, security, fair courts, the environment, and the working of our electoral system.

But we ourselves must also take the responsibility for getting informed, and informing each other, by communicating with other women. In the present system, no one can or will inform women except women themselves. We have to reach for it ourselves. Women must realize we are the majority -- and start acting like it.

We need to know how the system works from trustworthy non-partisan information, not sound bites. And then we have to turn our knowledge into actions, according to the political party which resonates with each of us.

What do you think?

WomenMatter is a place to discuss life issues with other women. We don’t want to wedge women apart, but rather bring them together to dialogue. To participate in our blog, click here.

WomenMatter encourages women to educate themselves on the issues and then approach their representatives with ideas.

Your voice is vital. Make sure your leaders know what’s important to you. To see how your representatives vote and to contact them, click here.

WomenMatter is dedicated to empowering women to participate in the political process. To do this we have invested in the most in-depth NONPARTISAN information, because we trust each woman to make up her own mind.

• We track nine issues every week and update this website several times a week.
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Update Posted on: 11/5/2005