2004 NCWO Voter Guide Places NOW's Issues Front and Center

Vote As If Your Life Depends on It—Because It Does!

March 3, 2004

by NOW Staff

NOW is a proud member of the National Council of Women's Organizations, and as co-chair of the group's domestic policies task force, we helped produce the 2004 voter guide, "The ABC's of Women's Issues." We couldn't agree more with the voter guide's message to women: "Vote as if your life depends on it—because it does." Every feminist should have a copy of this invaluable pamphlet in her hip pocket!

NCWO is a coalition of almost 200 women's rights organizations that represent more than 10 million women. The 2004 voter guide is a summary of many of the women's issues that we all work on and care about. Included in the guide—now going into its second printing—are useful questions to ask the candidates who are running in 2004 for local, state and national office.

Women's equality and opportunity concerns have received little attention from most candidates, political parties, and members of the media. NOW, along with NCWO, works hard to protect Roe v. Wade and reproductive health rights, but girls and women have a wide variety of additional issues that are important to them and their families—including education, jobs, health care, caregiving responsibilities, security in our senior years, safety in our homes and communities and freedom from discrimination. We must work hard to bring all of these issues to the candidates' attention and in the forefront of our national priorities. The guide is a good beginning for educating voters about a wide range of women's issues and urging them to engage in the political process on matters of vital concern to women and their families.

"The ABCs of Women's Issues" covers: affirmative action, business and women, child care, ERA, family leave, global women's issues, health care and human rights, job training, military women, pay equity, reproductive rights, Social Security, Title IX, violence against women, and welfare reform.

Activists: Please use the guide as a first step in your activities—speaking to, writing to, and working with policy makers and candidates who visit or are running for office in your community or state. You can also use this voter guide as a framework to plan educational and issue activities in order to motivate non-registered or disenchanted women voters in your area. Encourage them to become an "anti-violence voter" or a "welfare rights voter" or a "pay equity voter" or a "caregivers count voter" and take their issues to the candidates and to the polls this November.

This guide may also be used to quickly educate feminists on a variety of issues, giving them the courage they need join the fight to take back our nation. The possibilities and uses for this voter guide are endless. Your motivation, creativity, and involvement are what we need to make the voter guide a success. Let's make them see the power and strength of women voters. We matter!

We hope that everyone will use both NOW.org and the NCWO Voter Guide in any and all ways that can benefit you and your community's needs. Feel free to focus on the issues you believe are the most important or most practical for organizing purposes in your community—or add topics not included in the pamphlet if they are specific to your goals or interests. Use the guide as a springboard for change.

Hard copies of "The ABCs of Women's Issues" may be requested at ncworg@aol.com.

The guide provides background and questions on key issues of concern to women. We need to get candidates to speak to these issues and take positions on them. Here are some of the ways of getting to the candidates:

• Attend a candidate's forum in your community—the guide works for candidates at all levels—federal, state and local. You may need to adapt some questions, but the essentials are there.
• Participate in a candidate's screening in your organization. Many organizations screen candidates for endorsements—attend these meetings and ask questions about women's issues.
• Visit a candidate's web site and ask questions there. Almost all candidates have web sites. You can ask questions right from your computer!
• Send a letter or email to a candidate asking for her/his position on issues of interest.

Candidates will start paying more attention to women's issues when the media do. So, here are ways to get the media's attention:

• Call in to radio talk shows asking relevant questions of candidates or participants in political discussions.
• Get your local radio and/or TV station to feature "The ABCs of Women's Issues" and to hold a discussion on it.
• Bring "The ABCs of Women's Issues" to the attention of the editorial board of your local newspaper and get a discussion going with the board and ask them to write an editorial about women's issues.
• Write an op-ed piece or letter to the editor for your local newspaper. Tips on how to do this are found on the last page of the guide.
• Take out an ad in your local paper addressing issues of concern to your group.

• Attend meetings of the political parties in your area and ask the parties what they're doing about women's issues and voters.
• Attend political party conventions and present testimony on women's issues for inclusion in the party's platform.

• Send this page to your personal or organizational list, reminding them to go to the NOW and NCWO web sites and take action.