What Women Want

John Kerry recently was forced to face a simple, incontrovertible fact: without the women's vote, he will lose the 2004 election.

Two disappointing polls delivered the bad news last week: an Associated Press-Ipsos poll that showed Bush and Kerry running even among women; a New York Times poll giving Bush a five percentage point lead among registered female voters. So it's no wonder that the Kerry campaign has finally realized that it's time to start talking to women.

Dolores Huerta, founder of United Farm Workers of America and the national chair of the Women for Kerry campaign, is planning to meet with the Kerry campaign this week to discuss measures to address the gender gap. "We're planning to focus on women's issues, including healthcare and social security," she said. "There's still time to reach the millions of women who've been undermined by the Bush administration."

Here's the good news for the Democrats. Contrary to the media babble about "security moms," the issues most important to women voters are also John Kerry's greatest strengths, be it healthcare or the minimum wage.

While many women across the political spectrum have raised concerns about terrorism and security, a new survey released by Women's Voices, Women's Vote (WVWV) reveals that forty percent of unmarried women want to hear less about the war on terror and more about affordable healthcare, equal pay and a higher minimum wage. The 12-state survey conducted by Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner Research for the non-partisan organization questioned 1250 unmarried women, ages 18-64, half of whom make $35,000 a year or less.

"They think John Kerry is more interested in talking about domestic and economic issues and George W. Bush is more interested in talking about security and moral issues," says pollster Anna Greenberg. "But more importantly, sizable numbers of unmarried women simply do not know if the candidates are interested in their issues at all."

Those findings sound about right to Susan Kellenbach, a 66-year-old retired music teacher from Rockbridge, Ohio. "Terrorism isn't as important to me as other issues," she says. "Social security is important to me. Medicare is important to me. Rising gas prices are important to me. Let's talk about those issues."

Kellenbach and her family voted for Bush in 2000. On Nov. 2, she plans to switch her loyalties and vote for Kerry. Her reason: "The Republicans are lying to us seniors. A lot of us feel like we're getting shoved in a hole."

Bush's near-obsessive focus on the so-called 'war on terror' has also alienated Joan Weiss, a 58-year-old insurance agent from Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. "I support conservative causes, but Bush is not a true conservative," says the long-time Republican. "I'm voting for Kerry because he will interact with the world instead of going it alone with a tough, cowboy image." She also wants the candidates to discuss the Patriot Act and their plan to create a just and peaceful society.

Voters like Weiss and Kellenbach are not alone. While it is difficult to get at hard figures, the experience of get-out-the-vote organizations also discounts the media-driven theory about "security moms" – the idea that at least 10 percent of likely women voters in the post-9/11 era are more likely to prioritize security over bread-and-butter issues. Mainstreet Moms Oppose Bush (MMOB) claims that a vast majority of the married and unmarried women it's contacted through its grassroots efforts still want to hear more about jobs, outsourcing, school funding and healthcare. While women do fear the possibility of reinstating the draft, "terrorism rarely comes up," says Megan Matson, founder of MMOB.

The volunteer-based group has sent out personal letters and voter registration forms to 250,000 moms in swing states. "We've heard from many staunch Republicans, especially the ones who are opposed to nation building, who say they can't, in good conscience, vote for Bush. Many say they'll vote for Kerry or won't vote at all," says Matson. She says her group has been overwhelmed with responses, but has yet to hear from a Democrat who plans to vote for Bush.