While the pundits are slicing up the Obama victory into byte-size pieces of demographic information, one over-arching truth needs no punditry: women and women’s issues were the tiebreaker in the recently-concluded US presidential elections.
The issues of abortion and rape, of course, led the pack. But even issues such as healthcare, minority rights and the economy, which carry a huge, hitherto unrecognised female constituent, won the day for the Democrats.
For weeks in the run-up to the election, and in spite of all the wise words about the race being close and tipping in the Republicans’ favour, social networking sites were reverberating with outrage over the affronts that GOP statesman were making on what were essentially women’s issues. The disrespect to one half of the populace, the loony attitudes towards abortion, minority rights and race issues, and the ludicrous statements about rape daily reminded the world about how out of step Romney and gang were with the rest of the world.
Compared to that, the touchy-feely White House incumbent, with his strong and powerful wife, his ever-present graceful daughters and the memory of his adored late single parent — his mother — reinforced the image of the Democrats being a party where women were heard, seen and, above all, respected.
And, in the end, it is these women — white, black, gay, straight, single, married, Republican, Democrat, young, old, Protestant, Jewish, Hispanic, employed, and unemployed, who voted for Obama. These women and the men who loved them, thought like them and for them.
Women who set aside politics, the economy (for too long had we been told that this election would be about the E-word), their own traditional affiliations or even their disillusionment with the man some of them had helped to bring in in 2008 to vote with their hearts, the hope for a better world for their children and the conviction of their value systems. Women who knew that regardless of what the Republicans promised to do with the economy, of how many new jobs they created and the taxes they lowered, this party of angry white men didn’t feel right. Not in their hearts, their bodies or their bones.
These were the same women whom politicians had taken for granted for too long. Not just in America, where even now the representation of women in the Senate is way out of sync with the national average, but all over the rest of the world. Women who are bullied, ignored, passed over, second-guessed, hidden, patronised and denied. Women who watch their families destroyed by futile wars, their young sons killed in sniper attacks, their daughters raped or sold off to strangers.
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It is these women who, if given a chance to vote in free and fair elections, will decide the fate of nations in the future. Who will bring the mightiest leaders and states to book. And no amount of propaganda, punditry or politicking can deceive a woman who knows where her interests lie. Her intuition tells her all she needs to know about what is good for her and what is not. A case in point is a meme that’s been doing the rounds ever since Wednesday’s results.
“In his concession speech Romney thanked his wife and referred to her as ‘the best choice he’d made’. In his Victory speech Obama thanked Michelle and referred to her as the woman who ‘agreed to marry me 20 years ago’.”
Tiny difference of words. But what a massive electoral difference they made!
Malavika Sangghvi is a Mumbai-based writer malavikasangghvi@hotmail.com