Mission Statement:
As the largest untapped pool of potential voters and issue advocates, unmarried women have the potential to change American politics. For the first time in our country's history, there are as many unmarried women as there are married in our country (53 million each), yet single women are considerably less likely to register and vote. Compared to married women, women on their own are 9 percentage points less likely to register and 13 percentage points less likely to vote.
Our research finds that unmarried women care deeply about the war, pay equity, health care, retirement security, and education. In turn, unmarried women support leaders who speak to their core concerns and will work to improve their daily lives and provide the opportunity for a better future.
But, with 20 million unmarried women still unregistered or not voting in national elections, their potential power remains vastly underutilized and they could decide many more national debates and elections.
The Women's Voices. Women Votes Action Fund is mobilizing this crucial constituency to bring them into the political process and make their voices heard in our democracy.
Combining trail-blazing understandings of the nation's changing demographics with cutting-edge techniques for voter identification, persuasion, and mobilization, the Action Fund plans to use strategies, tactics, and messages that scored these successes in the 2004 and 2006 election cycles:
- Motivated more unmarried women to vote; the share of unmarried women in the electorate grew from 19% in 2000 to 22.4% in 2004 and accounted for half the increase in one party's votes for president from 2000 to 2004;
- In 2006 Governor, House and Senate races, unmarried women overwhelmingly supported progressive candidates, particularly where areas WVWV AF conducted programs.
- Changed the ways that individuals think, talk, and organize around gender politics, explaining why the "marriage gap" is even more important than the - "gender gap."
