Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2004 | 9:48 a.m.
Millions of single women are cynical and bitter -- at least when it comes to voting for one of the two presidential candidates, according to a new survey by the nonpartisan Women's Voices, Women Vote project.
The survey found that the majority of single women -- those who have never married, are divorced, separated or widowed -- believe that neither presidential candidate is addressing their concerns.
Both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are spending too much time talking about the war in Iraq, terrorism and homeland security, the survey says, and almost no time talking about the economy, health care and education, issues single women identified as being their top concerns in the 12-state survey that included Nevada.
"These women are cynical and need to be persuaded that their voice matters and change can happen," said Chris Desser, co-director of Women's Voices, Women Vote. "They don't believe politicians understand or will address their concerns."
Apathy among single women was the primary cause of the voting bloc's poor turnout in the 2000 election, when 22 million unmarried women did not vote, Desser said. Lack of time was the second-most common reason for not going to the polls.
Women's Voices, Women Vote, which is funded by nonprofit organization The Tides Center, uses surveys and focus groups to understand women's concerns, co-director Page Gardner said.
The latest survey polled 1,250 single women 18 to 64 years old from Sept. 8 to 19. About 150 respondents were from Nevada and were contacted at random from a list of unmarried women compiled by the Women's Voices group, said Anna Greenberg, vice president of Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner Research. The survey did not tally results for individual states.
The majority of single women, one-third of whom were mothers, said they were more concerned with economic security than homeland security, the survey found. That challenged recent reports describing women as "security moms," who want only a strong president who could protect them, Gardner said.
"The only security they are interested in hearing from candidates on is economic security, health care security, Social Security," Gardner said.
About 40 percent of those surveyed said they are hearing too much about the war on terrorism and 34 percent said they were hearing too much on the war in Iraq.
Less than a quarter of women surveyed wanted to hear more about terrorism, Iraq or keeping America safe. But 73 percent said they wanted to hear more about equal pay for both genders in the workforce, 72 percent want to hear more about child care issues, 71 percent the environment, 64 percent retirement and Social Security, 63 percent education and 61 percent health care costs.
If politicians would only address some of the issues women care about, such as health care and education, then women would come out to vote in droves, said DuVergne Gaines, West Coast campus director for the Feminist Majority Foundation, which also is working to motivate women and minority groups to vote.
As the core caregivers, women are more interested in peace, Gaines said, and the war in Iraq can be very alienating. But jobs, pay equality, health care and education do bring women to the polls.
"These are the core issues women are concerned with, and they are not being addressed forcibily and not being addressed in a way that women believe they are being communicated to," Gaines said.
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