I'm watching the electoral college votes roll in and listening to the political pundits chatter away about this demographic voting this way and that demographic voting that way. I can't help but notice, as I have throughout this election, the discussion of women. "Women care about X issue" and "Women are passionate about Y issue" and "He really depends on women voters in X state."
I'd like to point out a potentially little known fact: Women are half the country.
HALF. So perhaps it is a little presumptive to assume that HALF the population cares about one issue more than another. Perhaps implying that a full HALF of the population votes based on the same predictable 1 or 2 issues is a little insulting.
There's a lot of women voters out there and we are from all walks of life. Yuppies. Soccer moms. Old money. New money. Religious leaders. Secular leaders. Low income. Urbanites. College educated. High school drop-outs. Black. White. Asian. Hispanic. Business owners. Environmentalists. Government employees. The list goes on and on and on.
I think the campaigns and the commentators would be much better served to describe women voters through more narrow segmentation than "women." Do you ever hear "Well he really needs to win the male vote for this election"? No! You hear "White working-class men are critical;" a finely-tuned, specific segment.
Next election, please consider that women voters are defined by things other than their anatomy and speak to and about us as the diverse, critically-thinking individuals we are.
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