Why Women Should Vote

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It is past my bedtime so I won't be back until morning, but I hope enough will check this out that we can have a discussion tomorrow.

Here is a link to something that has gone around emails for some time. It is so timely, so important, that I hope all who click onto this thread will also click onto the link and read the page and look at the photos.

We all should vote, but not everyone has had the right and it wasn't all that long ago that women were left out of the process. We owe these brave women the respect to use our right in November.

http://www.rense.com/general83/whywomen.htm

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Type: Discussion • Score: 14 • Views: 5,368 • Replies: 33

@Diane,

I think, women shouldn't only vote but also get encouraged to stand for election, get a mandate!

However:

Quote:

The female nonvoter is ignored by politicians, parties, pundits, and professional consultants, who seem obsessed instead with “likely” or “swing” voters. In the 2004 presidential election, more than half (54.5 percent) of women between the ages of 18 and 24 did not vote. However, women in this age bracket voted at a higher rate than their male counterparts, only 40 percent of whom cast ballots. At the other end of the age spectrum, only 29 percent of women aged 65 to 74 did not vote, compared to 26.1 percent of men in the same category. The top reasons women offer for opting out include “illness/disability” (19.8 percent), “too busy/scheduling conflict” (17.4 percent), “not interested” (10.7 percent), and “did not like candidates or campaign issues” (9.7 percent). Excluding the final two responses, it is important to note that nearly nine in ten women didnot participate for reasons other than a lack of feeling engaged.

Source: Women voters in the USA

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@Diane,

Seconded. Alice Paul is one of my all time heroes from American History... not to slight Lucy Burns and the countless other heroes who fought against the bullshit. That short story should be lengthened at least enough to include the fact that the jail time and suffering resulted from those brave ladies, icons of bravery really, refusing to pay a fine and thereby admit wrong-doing for nothing more than protesting. They changed history by refusing to bow to anyone, knowing right was right and suffering quite literally to accomplish it. I don’t know if they even make people like that anymore. I think BBB once said she actually knew Paul’s daughter. Even that, I would consider an honor.
Great thread, Diane. Get out the vote LADIES!

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I think many young people have no idea who was a second class citizen in our fairly recent and recent history.

1 Reply

@Diane,

Wow! Thanks for the link, Diane. I really want to see that movie.

Loved this:

Quote:

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

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@edgarblythe,

Edgar- I second that. I can remember classified ads that were divided into, "Help Wanted- Male", and "Help Wanted-Female". Most educated women could aspire to one of two careers...................teacher or social worker. A college educated woman could start in a large corporation, as a secretary.

For those women whose schooling stopped at high school, the trades were barred to them. There were no female police or fire fighters.

A woman I knew got a job in the probation department, as a probation officer. (This was in the mid-eighties) Some of the older women told her that when they first came on the job, they were treated to the most miserable forms of verbal abuse from the men.

The woman that I knew was in the "second wave" of female hirings, and had an easier time of it. But it was the pioneer women in her department, who took all the abuse, and persevered, that allowed her to work in relative comfort.

There are people who would take away some of the gains that women have fought hard for. The vote was the most dramatic, and it is important for women to be a force in the election. The politicians need to know that it is women who can make or break them!!!

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@Diane,

Quote:

Junior-Seniors: Women aged 50 to 64, many with children living at home, are expecting entitlements and eternity (the quest to extend life), seeking solutions and sophistication.

Now, this just makes me mad!

1 Reply

@JPB,

Quote:

If a woman bristles, “I hate politics,” what she is saying in effect is that she cares not who manages the public schools and what is taught there; how health care is accessed, delivered, and paid for in the United States; whether the nation is safe, prosperous, and globally competitive. Yet clearly she does not mean that. Politics and governance are the vehicles through which change in these areas is accomplished but not necessarily the prism through which women interact with them.

As someone who regularly declares that she hates politics, this is NOT at all what this woman is saying. What this woman is saying is that she hates the two-party, backroom game-playing BS that has come to define politics.

The more I read this thing the more "bristly" I become. grrrrr.....

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@JPB,

That was a real shocker about Woodrow Wilson, especially since his wife, Edith ,was the secret president of the U.S. for a year.

At one time, a woman could not be a teacher if she had a family. Sheeeeeze!

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@Letty,

Quote:

At one time, a woman could not be a teacher if she had a family.

So there is a sound historical precedent for Sarah Palin to give up the vp slot.

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With all due respect-- I do respect the bravery of the Woman's Suffrage Movement and think that giving women the vote was one of the victories in the long march toward a just society.

I cringe when I see articles such as this.

First, this article bases its argument on a historical "account" that is factually inaccurate and contains no documentation. It tells a horrific story that is "based" on truth... but it makes no effort to be historically correct. The truth matters to me, particularly when someone is trying to sell me an emotional argument.

Second, the argument is logically false. It is clear that in a just society women should have the sane right that men do to vote. Shouldn't women also have the same right that men do to not vote?

I have an instinctive negative reaction to arguments based on emotional arguments that aren't based on a true historical account.

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@ebrown p,

I don't think the author truly means women should have to vote; only an argument as to why it is to their own self interest to do do.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

That's one reason I voted for Hillary and not Obama and right now, I'm finding it very hard to want to vote for either McCain or Obama.

In some cases, no vote is better than a vote for the wrong person or even the wrong reason.

1 Reply

@Miller,

miller wrote :

Quote:

In some cases, no vote is better than a vote for the wrong person or even the wrong reason.

do you have the option of a "spoiled" ballot in the U.S. ?
(we can "spoil" a ballot in canada) .
that way you can send a message that you are a voter but not happy with any of the candidates .
hbg

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@hamburger,

The Write in vote can be given to anybody at all, but it only counts if the recipient is qualified to serve. Some persons have voted for Snoopy, the cartoon dog, among other things.

1 Reply

@hamburger,

There is always the option of leaving your chad hanging.

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@Diane,

I don't get this. They do vote. Women have voted in greater numbers than men in every election since 1964.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

edgar wrote :

Quote:

The Write in vote can be given to anybody at all, but it only counts if the recipient is qualified to serve. Some persons have voted for Snoopy, the cartoon dog, among other things.

so that seems the same as in canada - when the election results are announced they are given as "spoiled ballots" .
i think some voters do not realize that by "spoiling a ballot" they can send a message - perhaps even a strong message - that they are not satified with any of the candidates and their policies .
imo if all eligible voters would cast their ballots and 30 % would be spoiled ballots , politicians would receive a stronger message of dis-satisfaction than by voters simply staying at home .
imo simply abstaining is not a good option at election time .
cast your ballot - even a spoiled one - has always been my personal choice .
hbg

1 Reply

@hamburger,

Staying home sends a message of, "I am apathetic; do what you will." At least a write in votes makes a statement.

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@OCCOM BILL,

OBill said,

Quote:

I don’t know if they even make people like that anymore.

That was one of the first thoughts that came to me. They still can be found in third world countries where additional danger is lurking. I can only be amazed and inspired.

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Why Women Should Vote

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