An article by Eugenia Chen in New America Media earlier this week supplied some serious food for thought. Chen voiced her discontent with the way political pollsters eagerly mass unmarried women into one amorphous group of desirable votes, as if all are ripe to vote the same way. I’ll quote her main point because she said it best, “unmarried women are unmarried in so many different ways.” For that very reason, Chen objects to the growing tendency to see unmarried women as a singularly defined group with a singular political voice. The cares and concerns and aspirations of unmarried women are equally varied. So doesn’t it stand to reason that they won’t vote the same way, because they don’t come from the same place and don’t want the same thing!
An unmarried woman, age 30, Chen describes the relentless pressure and conjecture she experiences from her family about her single status. In many ways, those exerting the pressure assume she is at fault for her martial status, that she is doing something wrong. Lest you worry that Chen on some level agrees, rest easy that she doesn’t. She’s self-assured and confident. She understands the convictions behind why she has yet to marry. She knows her own mind and what she wants out of life. And that includes wanting political pollsters (as well as her family) to look not at women’s ring fingers (on Chen’s ring finger), but for what they care about (what she cares about).
It might be the optimist in me doing the thinking, but I like to think that such a shift in acceptance and understanding of life choices will come. It’s not a matter, though, of simply letting time work its magic. Unmarried women, actually let me rephrase this, women have to speak up for what they want (whatever that may be), and speak out (like Chen) when they don’t like the manner in which they’re poked and prodded and ultimately lumped en mass. I have fingers and toes crossed that in the next election women voters will turn out in high numbers to do just that.
In the meantime, I’m wanting new ways of identifying patterns and trends for voters that go beyond gender and marital status. Perhaps it’s naive to think that those characteristics can be given a lesser status. Dunno. Surprising things happen though when we let ourselves be curious and step outside the usual boxes.
