I got to wondering why the msm and a big majority of people in general consider women (as voters especially) to be minorities.To add to the confusion you can throw in the 2 million plus prisoners held in American jails, around 90% of which are male. Then there are the close to 6 million probation/parolees who cannot or beleive they cannot vote who are also above 80% male. That should, in theory make the female vote the most sought after in any election.
Comprising one of the electorate's largest and most reliable voting blocs, women are a natural target. They make up 54 percent of the population, 55 percent of registered voters and 60 percent of the electorate
explanation below
Unless you are a Republican. The only group they count on in elections is "security moms", married women with children who are counted on to vote on hollow national security and family values slogans of the radical right. They aren't even a majority of married women with children. The truth is that women can and do rock the vote. The areas with higher gender gaps of women over male voters turn out democrat officials. There is a dissappointing number of women who are still in our self proclaimed "equal" society who are held back from voting.
* Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women ages 15-44. 1
* There are nearly three times as many animal shelters in the United States as there are shelters for battered women and their children. 2
* 37% of women who sought treatment in emergency rooms for violence-related injuries in 1994 were injured by an intimate partner.3
* Nearly 1 in 3 adult women experience at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood.4
* During the Vietnam War 58,000 American soldiers were killed. During the same time, 51,000 American women were killed by the men who professed to love them.5
* 45% of battered women live in households with children under the age of 12.6
* Boys who witness their fathers' violence are 10 times more likely to engage in spouse abuse in later adulthood than boys from non-violent homes. 7
* 50% of homeless women and children are fleeing domestic abuse.8
* As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy.9
* On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day.10
* Only about 15% of all domestic assaults are reported to the police.11
* Female victims of domestic violence are 6 times less likely to report crime to law enforcement as female victims of stranger violence.12
1 California Department of Health Services, Violence Against Women in California 1992-1999.
2 Senate Judiciary Hearings, Violence Against Women Act, 1990.
3 U.S. Dept. of Justice, Violence Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments, August 1997.
4 American Psychological. Association. Report of the APA Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family, 1996.
5 American Medical Association, "Five Issues on American Health." Chicago 1991.
6 C.M. Rennison and S. Welchans , Intimate Partner Violence, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Washington , DC : 2000.
7 U.S. Dept. of Justice. Family Violence Interventions for the Justice System, 1993.
8 Sheehan Zorza, Joan. "Woman Battering: A Major Cause of Homelessness," in Clearinghouse Review, vol. 25, no. 4, 1991.
9 Gazmararian JA, Petersen R, Spitz AM, Goodwin MM, Saltzman LE, and Marks JS. "Violence and reproductive health; current knowledge and future research directions." Maternal and Child Health Journal 2000: 4(2): 79-84.
10 Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003.
11 Florida Governor's Task Force on Domestic and Sexual Violence, Florida Mortality Review Project, 1997, p. 3.
12 American Psychological. Association. Report of the APA Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family, 1996, p. 10.
One more I can't remember where it came from, The leading cause of death in pregnant women (in this country) is murder by their partner.
Then take into consideration that in 2004, Replublicans swept into congress and froze all funding for the VAWA (Violence Against Women Act), then put up the fight of their lives blocking the re-authorization of VAWA known as The violence Against Women Act of 2005. NOW marched on the capitol to promote its passage.
Now think about Mr "W is for women" Bush who keeps blabbering in every recent press conference about how Iraqi and other women in the middle east deserve equal rights. Hmmmmm. Bushco's rubber stamp congress is quietly opposing the empowerment of literally beaten down women who almost surely would never end up being ""security moms", while he is posing as someone who gives a damn about equality. That just doesn't add up.
If we found a way (absentee ballots mabey?) to get the vote out to these citizens who have already had enough taken from them, not only would it be grassroots but it just might push law makers to do something about the dispicable hipocracy of our beleifs that we are an equality loving society.
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/...
http://www.houseofruthinc.org/...
you can also check out NOW or the DOJ pages on domestic violence.