Voting is an integral human right and yet not everyone is able to exercise it. In fact, many who are able to vote choose not to do so. The voting system is set up in such a way that if people withhold their votes, like in the instance of not favoring either party, those votes contribute to the winning party due to less opposition. We have seen this process in effect, most recently in the 2016 Presidential election, when a substantial percentage surrendered their participation by not voting at all. That substantial percentage was made up of a great deal of first-time voters and voters in the younger age brackets. Not only was age a factor but gender as well. There was a gender gap present in the 2016 presidential election where an overwhelming amount of women opposed Donald Trump as a potential president yet at the same time, they didn’t favor Hillary Clinton nor want her to take on the role as the first woman to sit officially in the oval office. The disparity between voting numbers is created when voters feel they have nowhere for their vote to land securely. The women’s suffrage movement gave women the right to vote just as men had been doing for decades. The movement was a historic landmark and the start of everything for women’s rights, permission for women to insert themselves in politics. If we start falling back now, when the country is in such a state of direst, we will be doing such a disservice to not only the women who fought for equality all those years ago and to the women in countries that still do not permit women the right to vote. Gender plays a significant role in political participation around the globe, through various factors, not only with availability and willingness but with the mindset that women’s votes count less or not at all. While certain countries are more inclusive than others, the fight for gender equity remains a global initiative, in which voting rights lead the charge.
The Importance of the Woman Vote
To be a part of the conversation, one must first get a seat at the table. Women in places outside of the United States, such as middle eastern countries, still encounter severe difficulty in voting. Some of these countries, like Pakistan, allow voting but only with the husband’s permission; whereas in Vatican City, Rome, women do not have the right to vote at all. While in the United States women have been voting freely since the 1920s, the fight for gender equity is still very much alive across the globe. Regarding the availability of voting for women, “although a number of women took advantage of the right to vote immediately, it took several decades for turnout to fully adjust” (Lott). Now trends are showing a decrease in not only women voters, but the younger generations all together. The voting system today is not setup to favor the gender gap, also known as the difference between the proportions of male and female votes in any given election. The gender gap can go either way but it more commonly swings towards an overwhelmingly male voter toll. Understanding the gap is crucial to getting behind equity.
The Gender Gap
Polling research shows that more women than men register to vote, however, that data does not guarantee that the registration drives them to the polls on election day. In fact, “there has been a gender gap in every presidential election since 1980. In the 2016 election, men were eleven percentage points more likely than women to vote for Donald Trump (52% of men vs. 41% of women), according to the exit poll conducted by Edison Research” (Dittmar). The gender gap goes beyond women choosing not to cast their vote, it goes beyond not representing women around the world that may be unable to exercise the same right, it comes down to negatively affecting the logistics of the election itself. You could call it an imbalance of the gender population scales. In a society with so many people of all different walks of life, the typical male vote is not enough to stake a winning election on. Without the woman’s vote, beyond election day, women’s issues will not be given the attention they would be if more women took part in electing a candidate that would give them the attention they require. For an election to produce a fair result there must be an even representation across the board, something that has been an issue and continues to persist in politics today.
International Relations
Across the globe, by different methods and forms, women are still fighting for entry into the world of politics. Whether that be as a voting individual or by getting involved in the workings of politics up close and obtaining a position. While voting is still difficult in some places, being part of the team running things is even more rare for women. Successful international relations require a cooperation between countries. The lines of cooperation can get blurred when values differ, for example, gender role values. As a more progressive country, women’s rights being pushed aside or directly prohibited can cause unrest between the United States and another country. Women’s rights across the board are on the rise and people are paying attention, hearing our voices; so if things can continue trending upward, women’s roles in politics are looking up. Furthermore, with the upward trend, international relations will naturally improve in the instance of gender equity.
The Economy and the Female Vote
Similar to international relations, the U.S. economy and subsequently the global economy is affected by widespread inequality. Inequality affects the financial sector because of factors like work conditions, the cost of living, and the political framework. “A distinguishing feature of economies over the past three decades has been the widening income and wealth gap both within and between countries” (Sen). Economies have often gone the route of restructuring and globalization in the hopes of fostering positive results but more often than not, these results favor men. As it so happens, the higher costs and lower benefits fall on women as the gender pay scale differs. So, even though the intent is there, following the restructuring path just perpetuates the gender equity problem. As an economy, a nation, and a cooperative world, must begin incorporating measures to reduce gender inequity while keeping the global financial crisis at bay. Women’s voting and women’s rights in general comes into play with the global economy in what the systems, political or otherwise, has to gain and/or to lose from giving women access. In research regarding suffrage and women’s rights evolution in economic terms, it is said that back then “a scarcity of women strongly promoted early transitions to women's suffrage. Such scarcity significantly reduced the political costs and risks for male grantors of the suffrage. It might also have made women's suffrage attractive as a means to attract more women” (Braun). Over time, women have become more and more active in politics and the voting system; what is important now is that momentum is not lost and that gender equity is made a priority. The most important thing that the average person can do to make a difference is to use their voice and their vote for change.
The topic of women’s voting is important to me not only as part of the demographic, being a twenty-two year-old woman and political science student, but also because I used to avoid politics. For the 2016 presidential election, I was eighteen and it would have been the first election I voted in, however I chose not to vote at all. It is something I regret and can never go back and change. I convinced myself that the election was so bleak that my one vote wouldn’t matter. Fast forward to find out a lot of young people felt that way and did the same, a lot of them young women. With the historic victory of the women’s suffrage movement, being able to vote should not be pushed aside, it should be acted on as a right that women have earned. So women, I urge you. If you are able, use your voice, represent yourself and your fellow females and cast your vote in any and all upcoming elections.
Resources
Aslanbeigui, Nahid, et al. “Toward Gender Equity: Policies and Strategies.” International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, vol. 16, no. 3, Apr. 2003, pp. 327–482, doi:10.1023/A:1022348126692.
Braun, Sebastian, and Michael Kvasnicka. “Men, Women, and the Ballot: Gender Imbalances and Suffrage Extensions in the United States.” Explorations in Economic History, vol. 50, no. 3, Elsevier BV, July 2013, pp. 405–26, doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2013.04.001.
Catt, C. C. (2020, January 30). The Importance of Voting. Retrieved July 01, 2020, from http://www.iowapbs.org/catt/story/35662/importance voting
Dittmar, K. (2018, July 03). The Gender Gap in Voting: Setting the Record Straight. Retrieved July 01, 2020, from https://cawp.rutgers.edu/footnotes/gender-gap-voting-setting-record-straight
Greguska, E., & Terrill, M. (2020, March 12). How gender affects global political participation. Retrieved July 02, 2020, from https://asunow.asu.edu/20200312-discoveries-how-gender-affects-global-political-participation
Iversen, Torben, and Frances Rosenbluth. “The Political Economy of Gender: Explaining Cross‐ National Variation in the Gender Division of Labor and the Gender Voting Gap.” American Journal of Political Science, vol. 50, no. 1, Blackwell Publishing, Inc., Jan. 2006, pp. 1–19, doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00166.x.
Lott, Jr., John R., and Lawrence W. Kenny. “Did Women's Suffrage Change the Size and Scope of Government?” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 107, no. 6, 1999, pp. 1163–1198. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/250093. Accessed 2 July 2020.
Sen, Gita, The Remaking of Social Contracts : Feminists in a Fierce New World. Books, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rutgers- ebooks/detail.action?docID=1782249.