8 Reasons Why Women Should Vote

Our government is making decisions every day that affect women’s lives. But our leaders’ priorities often don’t match women’s priorities.

1)  Women face unequal pay for equal work, earning on average only 77¢ for every dollar earned by men—and African American women and Latinas fare even worse— but bills to strengthen the laws against discrimination have gone nowhere.

2)  Funds have been cut for student loans, Medicaid and child support enforcement—and 250,000 children have lost federal child care assistance since 2000, a number that is climbing.

3)  Social Security is threatened by tax cuts and efforts to “privatize” the system. Women are especially dependent on Social Security’s guaranteed, lifetime benefits.

4)  Women lack health insurance that meets their needs. 17 million women in the U.S. have no health insurance at all, and one in every five women reports that she did not fill a prescription last year because of cost. But some leaders in Washington have promoted insurance plans that shift costs onto the consumer, have pushed to reduce benefits, and have created a prescription drug program that makes the lowest income seniors and people with disabilities worse off than they were before the law passed.

5)  Women struggle to manage family and work responsibilities. Most women with young children work outside the home, and working parents are working increasingly longer hours. Paid family and medical leave and access to quality, affordable child care are often unavailable, but Congress has failed to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act or adequately fund child care.

6)  Funds for student loans are getting cut. Congress passed a law that will cut federal student loan programs by $12.7 billion over 5 years, Pell Grants are paying for a smaller and smaller share of college costs, and the President’s budget proposes additional education cuts of 29% for next year

7)  Women’s ability to control their reproductive lives and health is under attack. Roe v. Wade is in danger of being overturned because of new judges on the Supreme Court, confirmed by a majority in the Senate.

8)  Birth control is also under attack, with family planning programs under-funded, pharmacists refusing to fill birth control prescriptions, and the FDA delaying for over three years a decision to allow the morning-after pill to be sold without a prescription even though its own experts found that it’s safe.

Women must make their voices heard on the important issues that affect them. By getting out to vote, women can have a major impact on government policies that govern women’s rights and benefits. To find out more about how you can make your vote count, check out Project Vote Smart, The Center for American Women and Politics, The White House Project, and Girls in Government.Source: Southern Connecticut State University
Reprinted with Permission

Source: National Women’s Law Center