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Apr
12
Overlooked So Far, The Nation’s Unmarried Women in 2008 was released two days ago. You can read the summary here and the full report here.
From the summary:
So far unmarried women are mostly overlooked, but they are a key to this year’s campaign. A fast-growing demographic that is increasingly focused on politics, these single, divorced, and widowed women compose 26 percent of the electorate—in other words, unmarried women are more than one in four of all voters.
And appalling, unacceptable statistics:
A few facts make clear the challenges unmarried women are facing, and why their agenda is somewhat different from what the nation has heard from the campaigns so far.
- Economically Vulnerable. More than 40 percent of unmarried women have household incomes of less than $30,000 a year. That’s much worse than married women and married men, and worse than unmarried men.
- Work Pays Them Less. Unmarried women make less than others for the same work, and earn only 56 cents to every dollar a married man earns.
- Responsible for Children. The responsibility for taking care of children often falls on unmarried women: There are 12.2 million single-parent families in America, and more than 10 million are headed by single mothers.
- Missing Health Care. Unmarried women are more likely than other Americans to have no health insurance. They were twice as likely to be unable to afford medical care in the past year as women who were married.
- They Rely on Social Security. More than 25 percent of unmarried women rely on Social Security as their only source of income.
…
In this agenda, we outline the steps that leaders, particularly the next president, should take to address the needs of unmarried women. The policy agenda is divided into four categories: Expanding Opportunity by Rewarding Work; A New, Stronger Social Contract; Resolving the War in Iraq; and Improved Health Care for All.
I don’t imagine these numbers are going to reverse without consistent, intense attention, or without our elected lawmakers getting in there and doing something to create jobs, make health care affordable and demand that salaries and work conditions provide the stability and flexibility needed for not only the unmarried women, but especially those with children – since if the woman cannot provide for herself, how is she to provide for the child?
This is, of course, part of why we need more women in elected offices.
Ohio Go Run! Go Apply!More from the Census Bureau via Courier-Journal:
92 million: Number of unmarried and single Americans ages 18 and older in 2006. This group comprises 42 percent of all U.S. residents ages 18 and older.
54: Percentage of unmarried and single Americans ages 18 and older who are women.
60: Percentage of unmarried and single Americans ages 18 and older who have never been married. Another 25 percent are divorced, and 15 percent are widowed.
15 million: Number of unmarried and single Americans ages 65 and older. These older Americans comprise 16 percent of all unmarried and single people ages 18 and older.
86: Number of unmarried men ages 18 and older for every 100 unmarried women in the United States.
30.5 million: Number of people who live alone. They comprise 27 percent of all households, up from 17 percent in 1970.
12.9 million: Number of single parents living with their children in 2006. Of these, 10.4 million were single mothers.
Hattip to Women’s Voices, Women Vote.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:06 am April 12th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Civil Rights, Economy, Elections, Government, Health Care, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Ohio, Politics, Social Issues, WH2008, Women
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6 Responses to “Presidential candidates ignore unmarried women & risk successful campaign”
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one would think that is why we need women in elected office except that we have a woman running for president and with the exception of health care as a broad brush issue, it is not being addressed by her either.
I absolutely agree, Carole. I do think that once the Dem nominee is finalized, health care will rise again. But I feel strongly that the Iraq & Iran agenda is being pushed more by men than by women and that if more women, in general, were involved, not only those who are widowed and divorced as a result of the military actions right now, the conversation on the Middle East would be different too.
Yes, Condi Rice is in there – but we’re not at a critical mass of women influencing policy at those levels.
I don’t agree in talking about “the right woman” or women, but rather, let’s get us a deep bench everywhere.
And the need for women of color in there is obvious too.
balance adds perspective and that is always good I totally agree; the other thing I want to mention is that solutions to problems like disparity in wages, weak economy, better health care etc help everyone not just those of us in niches so there is no excuse. Iraq is sucking the life out of all the money that could be spent domestically.
I guess it must be my blind male perspective, but I do think this agenda is being addressed by both Democratic candidates. Health care is the obvious example, but economic policies that would help the economically disadvantaged and single parent households are part of both candidate’s platforms.
I think your focus should be less on the campaign, where there is little disagreement, and more on preparing to hold the eventual Democratic administration’s feet to the fire.
Seamus – thanks for reading and the observation. Yeah – I’m not in this demographic at all, but my guess is that the responses so often come as general ideas for lifting up everyone. That’s fine – but there are access issues for unmarried women, and they start at disadvantaged places that others won’t have to worry about once some programs are provided, created or otherwise in existence.
Again – I can’t speak from experience – maybe some of the female unmarrieds who read here could say more about their dissatisfaction with the candidates.
Frankly, John McCain doesn’t “speak” to me about anything I care about in a way that I can hear him or in a way that resonates for me. But that’s a whole other thing.
I’m in the demo and Seamus you are right; my second comment tried to say that but you did much better, as far as broad brush issues; I sort of disagree though, and maybe it’s the glazed over affect I get from campaign speeches – the fact that my specific demo group doesn’t ever get mentioned means my solutions have to come along with everyone else, no one is singling us out. And some of the issues have to be handled, in my opinion, on a state and local level. I didn’t assume we were only talking about Prez election. But it’s hard not to go there lol