It’s been been a watershed year for women’s rights. While 2017 continues to be devastating for millions of women, it’s clear that many—particularly women of color, young women, and unmarried women—are poised to transform the future of our country with their voices and their votes in 2018, just as they did in Alabama, Virginia, and other elections this year.
We began 2017 with the Women’s March, the largest protest in U.S. history. We saw four new women Senators sworn into office, bringing the number of women in the U.S. Congress to 105 with more than 1,800 of their women colleagues holding seats in state legislatures.
We’ve seen the long overdue recognition of harassment and discrimination in Hollywood, Congress, journalism, and among the countless women who have been harassed by bosses and colleagues who aren’t well-known enough to be splashed across the front page of the New York Times. And we’ve seen more women than ever raise their hands and run for elected office – more than double the number of women who ran in 2016.
2018 is going to be an even bigger turning point for women, especially in politics.
We can already appreciate the groundswell of support for female candidates – from school board to state legislative districts to the U.S. Senate – and the recognition of the critical place women voters have in our democracy. Women are breaking civic records across the country, from the number of women running for office to the number of women voting in elections.
The voices and votes of unmarried women are powerful, and more people than ever are listening.
Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund, where I’m the president and founder, exists to help unmarried women – as well as people of color and young people – register to vote and have their voices heard in our political process. We focus on unmarried women in particular because they are underrepresented in elections – they’re 26 percent of the voting eligible population but we’re predicting they’ll only be 23 percent of the voters in 2018 – and have political priorities that differ from their married counterparts.
The voices and votes of unmarried women are powerful, and more people than ever are listening. Women have known for a long time that our government, our businesses, and our communities need to grow and reflect the diversity of our country.
It’s great to see the change happening at faster rates every year, but I believe the change we need can happen even faster if more unmarried women vote in elections. The numbers back it up.
For starters, we need to get more unmarried women registered to vote – one in three unmarried women are unregistered. A majority of the voting-eligible women in the United States are unmarried, yet married women were five percent more of the electorate than unmarried women in 2016.
I believe the change we need can happen even faster if more unmarried women vote in elections.
What also concerns me is a report from our sister organization, the Voter Participation Center, that predicts unmarried women will be among the most likely 2016 voters who won’t vote in 2018. 11.1 million fewer unmarried women aren’t expected to vote in 2018 – that’s one in three unmarried women who voted in 2016 won’t vote in a critical year where the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, Governorships, and state legislatures around the country are up for grabs.
We saw the importance of unmarried women in Virginia’s recent election, where the electorate was 21 percent unmarried women – three points higher than their share of the electorate in the last governor’s race in 2013. I’m hopeful we can replicate the efforts in Virginia to register people and motivate them to vote in races across the country in 2018.
The number of unmarried women continues to grow every year, which increases their importance in elections along with it. Strength in numbers is one of the most effective ways to make sure that women have their voices heard. It’s a lesson we’ve seen throughout history.
In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and their fellow pioneers began the women’s rights movement at Seneca Falls. The right to vote wasn’t extended to women in the United States for another 72 years when the 19th Amendment was ratified.
Strength in numbers is one of the most effective ways to make sure that women have their voices heard.
It’s a reminder that progress is often slow, but the things worth fighting for will come eventually if we work hard. Equal rights, increased access to the ballot, and an end to widespread discrimination and harassment of women are closer than ever.
Which is why after all of the progress we’ve made in the nearly 170 years since Seneca Falls, we can’t sit still. Women need to harness this energy and optimism into political power in 2018. That begins with voting – and registering to vote if you haven’t already – encouraging our fellow women running for office, and making sure that society no longer takes for granted the role women play in business, the economy, and government.
Page Gardner is the founder and president of Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing the voting participation and issue advocacy of the Rising American Electorate — unmarried women, people of color, and millennials.