In the early 1900s, American women fought long and hard for the right to vote. They held rallies and protests and conferences, all so they could have a voice in this country. Today, we tend to take this for granted. We were all born into a world that allows women to vote, so it may not seem like a special privilege. In fact, young people of all genders do not fully exercise their right to vote as much as older generations.
While it may not seem like a special thing anymore, we must remember that not every country is able to have a say in what happens with their country’s leadership and legislation. Yes, we do have a representative democracy, but how will your state’s representative know where the state stands if you do not cast your individual vote? If everyone thinks their vote doesn’t matter, then what is the point of having a democracy at all?
“According to the U.S. Census Bureau, young adult voters between the ages of 18 through 24 have consistently voted at lower rates than all other age groups in every presidential election since 1962."
1. Honor the sacrifices past generations of women have made.
As crazy as it is, women were originally not supposed to be able to have a say in what happened to our country. It was something we had to fight for, so let’s make sure those women of the past didn’t waste their time and energy. Your opinion is worth being heard.
2. When you take the men out of the picture, politics look like this:
You don’t have to be a political science major to know that women are underrepresented in our government. Since we are still in school and entering the presidential race ourselves is not an option right now, the least we can do is vote.
Women make up over half of the population of America. That being said, only about 20 percent of government leaders are women. That means around 80 percent of the people making the decisions are men, who will naturally think from a man’s perspective. In order to reach true equality, those numbers must one day be 50/50. In order to make decisions that represent a whole country, the people making the decisions should be representative of the whole country.
3. Women’s issues are often being discussed amongst the candidates.
Some of the big topics that the candidates debate include: abortion/a woman’s right to choose, LGBTQA+ rights, family planning, paid family leave, the gender wage gap, women’s healthcare and other topics that heavily impact the way we young women live our lives. It is important for us to make sure we choose the leaders that we feel appropriately take these issues into account.
4. When young women repeatedly don’t vote, our entire demographic loses its chance to be heard.
As young women, we should be informed about what is happening with our government. We are one of the demographics that is often overlooked and underrepresented.
5. We have the numbers to actually impact the election.
Millennials are larger and more diverse than the Baby Boomer generation. Millennials are made up of 87 million people; the Baby Boomers, 76 million. This means that Baby Boomers no longer have a pull in politics. Yes, they may be the ones that are actually in office, but when it comes to voting, our generation can actually make more of a difference. We are also much more diverse: 72 percent of Baby Boomers are white and only 56 percent of Millennials are white. Our large number of voters can actually cover a more diverse group of people.
Let’s make sure that the women before us made those sacrifices for a good reason. Let’s work toward getting issues like the gender wage gap and reproductive rights under control. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to enter a workforce that pays me less than my male coworker. And I definitely do not want to let the government control what happens to my body. Now that we are young adults, it is our time to take charge and demand a better and brighter future.
