With the American election fast approaching I have been chronicling the changing voting power of women. Since their enfranchisment in Canada, they have seen their power in elections continuously increase. In my research for my continuity and change paper I come across an interesting article written by FiveThirtyEight.

The article was a statistical analysis of women’s voting patterns in United States. It told the story of when women first started voting in more numbers in the 1980s. The 80s was the first time that women voted in higher numbers than men. Ever since then, women have seen an substantial increase in voting power as a demographic. 

“As the parties became more and more polarized over the next few decades, this gap grew larger too, as women and men’s political allegiances continued to drift apart. “The issues that women tend to care about have largely been embraced by the Democratic Party,” Cascio said.”

Some of those issues included the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), spending on the social safety net and other social issues. Reading this article I couldn’t help but ask myself “if women support those policies and hold more voting power than men, why is there such little movement on issues like the wage gap?”

When I was thinking about the article’s thesis I thought back to one of our essay readings this week about injustices against women. The essay written by xx, xx questioned the way women utilized their powers at the polls. The fact that women make up a majority of the electorate yet they are still a marginalized groups is an abomination. It brings up question of the systems of  society’s role in the oppression of women. Even with their voting power government has not been able to successful in rectify the injustices and unfairness in society for women. 

Why are the societal factors that lead to the wage gap not addressed?

Why has government been unsuccessful in their plans for equity and juctice?

Why are women underrepresented in government?

I do not have many answers to these question but I look forward to thinking about them. These question will frame my final product for this project.