I want to know what what concerns Democratic women. Not only what is your opinion on the hot topics of the day, although these are critical as well, but what pisses you off that no one is even bothering to address. What is marginalized as a side issue? How can a candidate get to those women you know who aren't interested in voting?
There are an estimated 40% of women who don't vote. We all know that just as there are male feminists, there are mysogonist women. I recently heard one particularly vicious one just put a book out. But these women are not the majority, and a surge in women excercising their rights to vote could marginalize them easily. Not to mention turn the tables on the GOP.
I am not implying that the women of DKos don't vote. But I am assuming that if you are here regularly, that you are democrats. In a previous diary I and the people who left comments discussed the facts regaurding the fact that women voters have a great power in any election in this country. The numbers from NOW and the last census that both show that women are a majority of the population in the US differ by around 3% but they are both over 50%. To add to that there are prisons overflowing whos average population consists of 90% men. According to NOW, women make up 60% of the electorate.
While we know that single issue voting is destructive, there are big problems that aren't even considered being called "issues"....
For example, the ability of a convicted (on the rare occasion that there is a conviction) rapist to sue his victim for custody of a child conceived in the midst of a violent act.
That the leading cause of death in pregnant women in this country is murder by their partner.
Welfare to work without a raise in the minimum wage or reasonable child care.
Inferior medical treatment.
The ongoing inequlity of payment for equal work.
The glass ceiling.
Abortions and the looming possiblity of them being a thing of the past.
To any of you who aren't sure that this could make for some Democrat landslides or at least victories, If Kerry had maintained Gore's percentage of female votes in Ohio in 04 (53%), male votes stayed the same and Naders votes were split evenly, Kerry would have taken Ohio by 107,000 votes. This would have put Ohio's 20 electoral votes in the D column and put Kerry over the top for the win. We are talking about millions of women who don't vote. 120,000 could have flipped the last presidential election.
I'm only one person. I don't know all of you. I am sure there are things that could be addressed but are still being ignored that I haven't listed. Please add your input to the comments and I will post them in a future diary as a unified letter to any democrat running or planning to run. Hopefully it will give some candidates a way to wake up that 40%. Thank you.