The Untapped Voting Power of Single Women

by KALENA THOMHAVE of The American Prospect

Unmarried women are less likely than their married counterparts to register and to vote but they could be a key Democratic voting bloc in November if candidates get moving to address their issues.

A new report from the Washington-based Voter Participation Center, an organization that registers voters and studies voting habits, finds that unmarried women could be a powerful political force, but many don’t vote or aren’t registered to vote. Yet single women make up half of all women and 26 percent of the adult population.

One of the report’s key findings hinges on the “marriage gap”—the difference between how married and unmarried women vote: Marital status plays more of a role in voting behavior than the gender gap, the difference between how men and women vote.

During the 2016 election, about two-thirds of unmarried women were registered to vote, but only 57 percent of those women actually voted. But of those single women who did vote, just 32 percent voted for Donald Trump. (Clinton won married women voters of all races only by a slim majority: 49 percent versus 47 percent.)

While unmarried women are not a homogenous voting bloc, they do share some common characteristics, the center found. Unmarried women are more likely to live in poverty; earn the minimum wage; have higher rates of unemployment; and have fewer savings. Half of unmarried women earn less than $50,000 annually. About 40 percent of unmarried women are women of color, and about a third are under the age of 30.

Complete article in The American Prospect

Click the following link for the full report compiled by the Voter Participation Center

VPC-Unmarried-Women-in-America-2018 (2)