• Reaching Women Voters
  Susan Molinari
• The Googling Mom
  Gur Tsabar
• Women 50 to 70 are the Golden Bull's-Eye
  Marti Barletta

Reaching Women Voters

Women are powerful in politics. The 2008 U.S. presidential race has cast a bright light on this fact. But even absent a woman on the ballot, it's important to understand the weight that women voters now carry.

Since 1964, women in the United States have voted in higher numbers than men, and the gap has grown steadily. Women began voting at higher rates than men in 1980, and in 2004, the voter turnout rate was 60.1 percent for women compared to 56.3 percent for men – with women outvoting men across every racial and ethnic group. Adding to this, women now are bringing their purses to the polls, too, making more financial contributions to campaigns.

Consider that women make more than 80 percent of consumer purchase decisions, and this is no surprise. Women are the ones watching prices rise at the grocery store, the doctor's office and even the gas pump. We also are primary decision makers on issues such as health care and school selection – key topics that often drive election debates and voter choices.

Political strategists have not missed these facts. Campaign rhetoric as well as media reports and analyses scarcely fail to address the importance of women voters. But very little is said about real, effective strategies for reaching women. That could be largely because women are not monolithic. Many differences drive the way we choose candidates. Still, any political campaign should carefully consider both how and where it is reaching women – and how to stagger messages for various segments, such as older women versus younger women.

When the 2008 presidential election is all said and done, I believe a big question will be “Where did women get their information?” The Internet has played a major part in this election, but it still is viewed largely as a medium for men. But more and more women are accessing blogs and otherwise catching up to men on Internet use. A major difference is that men tend to use the Internet to get news, while women use it as a research tool. This presents an opportunity for candidates and their supporters to provide substantive information online that could help sway women voters – especially since women also make up the majority of late deciders and swing voters. Yet campaigns often miss it.

For instance, BlogHer, an online network of more than 1,400 women bloggers, conducted a December 2007 survey that found, among other things, these facts:

• 55.8 percent of women bloggers were turned off by candidates' tactics to reach women (such as “Women for Obama” and “Moms for Hillary”) and
• 94 percent of women bloggers wanted to hear directly from the candidates via BlogHer – and not just from their spouses or other supporters, as some campaigns had offered.

Of course, the issue goes beyond presidential elections. Women are an important part of the electorate that any campaign should be trying to tap into. And the so-called “Sex in the City Vote” should be a priority. For the first time in our nation's history, the number of unmarried women – including those divorced and widowed – in the eligible voting population is equal to the number of married women. They each represent 26 percent. But many don't vote. Efforts such as WE tv's WE Vote '08 and others by organizations like “Women's Voices. Women Vote” are trying to mobilize these women, and savvy campaign strategists should, too.

For both this growing group of unmarried women and for married women, the key will be identifying the issues that matter most to them – including ones that have nothing to do with their marital status – and the communications channels that they are most likely to turn to.