Women gave Obama 55%
to Romney's 43%, a proportion that was unchanged from the president's
lead among women in 2008. Photograph: Cengiz Yar Jr/AFP/Getty
Election 2012 is already being billed as a historic moment for
women. Their votes re-elected Barack Obama for a second term, sent more
women than ever before to Congress and delivered a powerful message to
conservative politicians that attempts to redefine rape or interfere
with hard-won reproductive and other rights will not be tolerated.
Women
voted in record numbers, and the gender gap between the two candidates
could not have been more profound. Unmarried women backed the president
by an incredible 38 percentage-point margin over Romney, a statistic
which was one of the most striking of Tuesday night.
But the driving force behind female voters was not so-called "women's issues" – it was the economy.
Terry
O'Neill, president of the National Organisation for Woman, said: "It is
economic issues. Sure, at a certain point it's also about rights, but
at a more immediate level it's about survival.
"When you look at
unmarried women, they are very often the head of their families or
taking care of elders. What they saw in Mitt Romney was someone who had
disdain for them – as part of the 47%. He wanted to cut after-school
programmes, Head Start, food stamps and job training programmes."
She
said that the Republican's so-called "war against women" including
Romney's pledge to get rid of Planned Parenthood, a key women's
healthcare provider that also provide abortions, was important to
unmarried women for economic reasons.
"Planned parenthood offers
medical services at a low price. When you are struggling economically,
that sort of thing is your bread and butter. Two-thirds of minimum wage
workers are women – and the minimum wage has not gone up in the last few
years," O'Neill said. "If you don't have access to reliable
reproductive healthcare you are going to have a hard job surviving. One
in three women under the age of 45 in the US have an abortion. It's
common and it's necessary."
Women gave Obama 55% to Romney's 43%, a proportion that was unchanged from the president's lead among women in 2008.
During
the 2012 election campaign, the Republican party has been accused of a
"war against women" over issues like birth control and abortion. It has
come to a head countless times, but most prominently after comments by
senior Republican candidates which caused widespread offence.
Todd
Akin, running for the US senate in Missouri, suggested that women had
biological ways to "shut down" pregnancy after a "legitimate rape", a
claim made to support his opposition to abortion in any circumstances
including pregnancy from rape. Richard Mourdock, the Republican Senate
candidate in Indiana, said that pregnancies resulting from rape "is
something that God intended to happen". Both men were defeated by their
Democratic opponents.
Lisa Maatz, the policy director of the
American Association of University Women, which published recent
research showing a massive gender gap in earnings over time between
college men and women, said that 2012 was a wake-up call for young
women.
"In this election, young women really understood what their
mothers have been saying about the rights they have fought for," Maatz
said. "They are not set in stone. When young women hear politicians say
that birth control should be illegal – like Rick Santorum did – and
all-male panels talking about birth control, it all adds up.
"But
these unmarried women are not all young women, they are all ages, and
some of them are worried about social security and medicare. What they
have in common is they are more economically vulnerable."
Birth
control was a "huge economic issue" said Maatz. "Women did not vote with
their ladyparts, they voted with their pocketbooks like they always
do".
Among those joining the Senate will be Tammy Baldwin, of
Wisconsin, who made history twice over. She will be the first openly gay
member elected to the Senate and the first Wisconsin woman elected
there.
In New Hampshire, voters elected a female governor, and
becomes the first state with an all-female congressional delegation.
Carol Shea-Porter and Ann McLane Kuster,
defeated Republican incumbents on Tuesday night to win the state's two
House seats. They will join the state's senators, both women, Jeanne
Shaheen and Republican senator Kelly Ayotte.
Maatz said: "I don't know what they put in the Kool-Aid in New Hampshire, but I want some."
Celinda
Lake, Democratic pollster and president of Lake Research Partners, said
it was a "historic election for women" in a number of ways. "It proves
that you don't make women angry."
She said that women's votes
drove a number of women – at the last count 20 – to the Senate, and also
won the races for Claire McCaskill, who was up against Akin and Joe
Donnelly, who was up against Mourdock, after both men were widely
criticised after making comments on abortion and rape.
and it was overwhelmingly from women aged between 18-44. A majority of
Missouri voters supported abortion and three-quarters of Missouri voters
came out for McCaskill.
Polling for the Donnelly/Mourdock contest showed a similar pattern.
Fifty-two per cent of women voted for Donnelly in Indiana, with 42% voting for Mourdock. Male voters were almost deadlocked,
The
election result could also leave a profound impact on reproductive
rights indirectly through the supreme court. Four of the current
justices - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and
Stephen Breyer – are all in their 70s, so its seems likely that the
president over the next four years will get to nominate at least one and
quite possibly two replacements. A Romney win could have led to the
court being tilted decisively against Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973
decision guaranteeing the right to abortion under most conditions.
Brigitte
Alfred who won the Miss Tanzania 2012 edition. The much anticipated contest
was held at the Blue Pearl Hotel in Ubungo, Dar es Salaam, on Saturday night.
PHOTO I SALHIM SHAO