Ever since the 19th amendment granted American women the right to vote, we began to see how this interest group of female voters helped shape every following election.
Women like Lucretia Mott, a Quaker activist, Ida B. Wells, a black journalist from Memphis, Tennessee, and Mary Church Terrell, the first black woman to serve on the American Association of University Women, became renowned leaders who fought for their voting rights.
But to this day, there are still barriers when it comes to women voting.
“Being able to find the time to vote [is a barrier],” said Peg Carlson-Bowen, president of the American Association of University Women San Jose, an organization that focuses on advancing gender equity for women and girls through education, research and advocacy.
Although research shows an increasing number of female voters, there’s an existing barrier to what types of female voters have quicker access to voting.
According to a Aug. 11 study conducted by a Columbia University researcher, 46% of potential voters with family incomes two times lower than the federal poverty line voted in the 2016 presidential election, compared to 68% of those with family incomes two times higher than the poverty line.
This ties back to how the women’s suffrage movement mainly focused on raising concerns based on racism and oppression, which included lower-income citizens and still happens to this day.
The women’s suffrage movement came from the abolitionist movement. Women’s rights were first addressed in the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in 1837.
Sharon Bouska, a member of the women’s equality leadership council for the American Association of University Women San Jose, said places like the South don’t consider the amount of different languages people speak when it comes to voting compared to Santa Clara County. This means female voters who may have a language barrier are also less likely to vote.
In a March 20, 2015 article by Facing South, the article states, “Difficulty understanding registration forms, ballots and other voting materials for LEP [Limited English Proficiency] voters such as recently-naturalized citizens may discourage them from turning out to the polls.”
Facing South is an online magazine that focuses on in-depth analyzing and reporting of trends across the south.
But even with these barriers, SJSU political science professor Sabrina Pinnell said that race is a larger issue when it comes to women, especially women of color.
“Women in this country do not vote as a bloc,” she said. “White women voted more for Trump than Clinton in 2016, for example – so ethnicity is a bigger issue.”
According to the book “Unconventional Wisdom: Facts and Myths about American Voters,” the myth that the gender gap emerged because female voters have become more Democratic is false because more women voted in the 2016 presidential election, which resulted in a Republican win.
“The gender gap is the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes,” states the World Economic Forum article.
Looking at the 2016 election results, race also plays a role in the issue because white women vote at a rate significantly higher than any other demographic of women.
According to an Aug. 18 Pew Research Center article, a Washington think tank, white men and white women were more likely to say they voted than Black men and Black women. The study revealed that 67% of white women voted in 2016 compared to 64% of Black women.
Sociology junior Marley Harr said that as a first-time voter, she feels like women in minority groups tend to consider others and vote for their best interests.
“I do believe race plays a factor in the way women vote because most women are empathetic and nurturing. Therefore, we don’t only consider ourselves when voting, but we consider other marginalized groups,” she said.
Carlson-Bowen agreed and said there are more women with college degrees who support Biden because of this.
“I think this has to do with concern about COVID-19, concern about the economy and healthcare,” she said. “So, a lot of times women vote on family issues, things that are going to affect their families.”
More than 62 million American voters are breaking early voting records in the 2020 presidential election, and according to a Monday article by NPR, Latinx women are leaning toward a certain direction.
In the same Aug. 18 Pew Research Center article, a growing number of women said they are most likely voting for the Democratic party this year.
“I personally think women in the election will be leaning more towards the Democratic nominee because he is the only candidate out of the two to condemn white supremacy and acknowledge decisions he has voted on in the past weren’t the best,”
Harr said.
She said that she might seek citizenship elsewhere if President Trump is re-elected.
“I don’t believe a candidate who has been openly sexist, xenophobic and prioritizes the economy over the welfare our people should be president,” Harr said.
