Morra Aarons-Mele schools me on women voters

Even I...rabid, liberal, politically-aware feminist that I am...fell for the "frame."

BlogHer Political Director Morra Aarons-Mele has a post on the Huffington Post that truly took me aback. In it she dismantles the myth that unmarried women disproportionately don't vote.

You know the whole meme about how many single women there are, and if they voted what it would do to elections, and how do we get them engaged to vote?

Well, turns out that first of all, we ALL don't vote to a shameful degree, but further: unmarried women vote more than unmarried men do. and yet no one wonders if, as Morra puts it, all the unmarried men are too busy playing Guitar Hero to vote. (Which cracked me up on a personal level, given my S.O. plays Guitar Hero incessantly, and he wasn't even registered to vote until I made him...and he rarely votes unless I physically drag gim. We'll see if getting him a permanent absentee ballot...which I signed him up for...works.)

Key excerpt from Morra:

"There is indeed a "Marriage Gap" among women. Married people vote at a higher rate than non-married people. But the marriage gap is actually larger among men. According to Census reports from the 2004 election, married men are as likely to vote (63% turnout) as married women (65%). But unmarried men (which includes single, divorced, separated, and widowed) are substantially less likely to vote (46%) than unmarried women (55%). The marriage gap is 10 points among women, and is nearly twice that (18 points) among men."

And sad to say, this was news to me. Welcome news, true. Now, do we think stat will stop the media and marketing types from perpetuating the notion of the disengaged,frivolous single woman? We do not.

How about you?

Posted by elisa at December 6, 2007 07:28 AM | Polls