Our Research

Women's Voices. Women Vote. Action Fund provides cutting edge research to guide our own and other organization's programs. The research conducted by Women's Voices. Women Vote Action Fund is available for download by clicking on the links below.

WVWV AF conducted focus groups in Colorado about the election, the candidates, their views on McCain, Obama, Biden and Palin. FULL REPORT


Drop Off Voters One Key to 2010

Drop-Off voters are voters who do not vote in the midterm election after having voted in the previous Presidential election. WVWV is at the forefront of analyzing who is at risk of “dropping off,” who will turn out to vote, and what the electorate will look like in the 2010 midterm elections.

In this survey, our first to analyze potential drop-off voters, participants were more likely to believe their state is off on the wrong track than the country and evidence emerges suggesting local issues can play as important a role in turn out as national issues. Most volunteered reasons for not voting reflect a candid self-assessment of competence; lack of information seems to inhibit voting.

Sometimes the means may matter as much as the message. In GOTV messaging, the second most powerful argument stressed the relative ease of voting with mail in ballots and early voting procedures. “Old school” outreach still has a role to play here. Asked to recall how they were contacted in 2008, drop-off voters are more likely to mention campaign mail, phones and television than social networking sites or e-mail.

Click here to download the full presentation [PDF]


The Rising American Electorate and Unmarried America

Presentation outlines demographic information, voter participation trends, and economic stability for unmarried women and the rest of the RAE. To download this presentation, click here [PDF]


Key Difference Emerge from Focus Groups

To view a summary of the focus groups and an oversample, click here [PDF]
Assessing the Impact of Sarah Palin on the Women's Vote: Unmarried women have unanswered questions. Read More
To view the frequency questionnaire of the oversample, click here[PDF]
To view a summary of the focus groups and oversample, click here[PDF]


 

Unmarried Women By The Numbers reinforces the concept that it is impossible to understand the women's vote without examining the impact of marital status and differences in political outcomes between married and unmarried women, the marriage gap. FULL REPORT


 

Engaging Unmarried Women II identifies the economy as the key issue to engage women on their own. FULL REPORT


 

Engaging Unmarried Women reveals unmarried women support progressive candidates, yet they have been insufficiently courted by the candidates. FULL REPORT


 

Understanding the Women's Vote identifies the Marriage Gap as decisive in political decision-making among women. FULL REPORT


 

Analysis conducted by Women's Voices. Women Vote Action Fund and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research underscores the importance of marital status among young voters. FULL REPORT


 

Women Voters and Presidential Politics, a poll of unmarried women in battleground states showed unmarried women moving to Obama in the post-primary period and anchoring his support among women overall. FULL REPORT


 

Examination of exit surveys found unmarried women overwhelming turnout was disproportionately high on Super Tuesday. FULL REPORT To view a slideshow presentation of the report, click here.


 

Profile of young unmarried women, and their potential impact on the 2008 elections. FULL REPORT


 

Analysis conducted by Women's Voices. Women Vote Action Fund and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research underscores the importance of marital status. The report shows how the marriage gap cuts across voting blocs and transcends other demographic attributes. FULL REPORT


 

Single women were the driving force for change on Election Day 2006. In fact, exit polls show that the marriage gap was the determining factor in the change that will be taking place on Capitol Hill.


 

Description of our 2006 programs and research. FULL REPORT


 

Summary of our 2006 research conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research on the mood of women on their own and how to motivate them to participate in the democratic process. FULL REPORT


 

WVWV AF poll conducted by Lake Research Partners shows that ballot initiatives are especially motivating to single women. Click here to see the Power Point summary of the poll. Click here for results from Michigan and Missouri and click here for results from Ohio and Washington.


 

In August 2006, WVWV AF conducted a Conference Call to discuss results of our recent research. Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation, and click here to view a memo of the Focus Group and Web Survey results discussed during the call.


 

Regression analysis on Hispanic voting patterns. FULL REPORT


 

Data from a Democracy Corps nationwide survey of 984 Hispanics conducted May 18-June 4, 2006. FULL REPORT


 

The Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation 2004 National Survey of Latinos: Politics and Civic Engagement was conducted by telephone between April 21 and June 9, 2004 among a nationally representative sample of 2,288 Latino adults, 18 years and older, who were selected at random. FULL REPORT


 

Women on Their Own: Agents of Change Presentation. FULL REPORT


 

Women on Their Own in Unmarried America Presentation. FULL REPORT

WVWV News
11 Sep 09 | 14:03

By Liz Weiss

New data released today by the Census Bureau shows a statistically significant increase in the national poverty rate in 2008. Most adults (18 and over) in poverty are women; 59 percent of adults in poverty are women; and 13 percent of all adult women are in poverty. Three-quarters of these women are women on their own—widowed, divorced, separated, or never married—despite being less than half (47 percent) of the population of adult women. These unmarried women have appreciably higher poverty rates than married women—20.8 percent versus 6.2 percent. Yet unmarried women live in a variety of situations—they may be living with partners, they may be mothers, they may be elderly—and each group has unique circumstances and needs. Indeed, poverty rates vary greatly for women by family status, age, and race.

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03 Aug 09 | 16:05

Policymakers must ensure economic security for pregnant women and new mothers, write Melissa Alpert and Alexandra Cawthorne in the first of a new series from Center for American Progress.

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01 Jun 09 | 16:16

Page Gardner of Women’s Voices. Women’s Vote says those voters historically shut out of power are an essential voice in progressive economic policy because it affects their lives the most.

They care about good jobs; they need health care; they want this country to take care of its children through education.

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27 May 09 | 16:21

A new report released today by two liberal groups says a majority of Americans hold progressive positions on a broad range of controversial issues and key constituencies that favor progressives are growing larger.

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