You're not listening

This is an amazing (by that I mean frightening and shameful) statistic pointed out by the good folk at ladida.org. The women of America feel ignored and underrepresented.

A little snippet:

Broken down by candidate, 51 percent of the women polled said that Bush understands them not well or not at all, and 39 percent said the same about Kerry, reports KRON4.com. Women represent 60 percent of all undecided voters, according to Center for Media Research.

Frankly, that sucks. Despite one group being from mars and the other from Venus, men and women have been actively engaged in a gender equality dialogue for a long time now. Maybe not long enough, but certainly longer than I've been alive.

It's not like Feminism is over--the dialogue isn't waning. I often find myself engaged in it. My girlfriend reminds me about the feminist march of progress when I fail to clean up after myself. I remind her about it when she refuses to pick up the bar tab. If not perfectly equal, whatever inequality exists in the relationship is based more on who complains the loudest, not who has the penis. It's about as healthy as two humans living in close quarters can get, I think.

Why then, have the issues and concerns of over 50% of Americans been swept under the rug? Not even abortion is a hot button topic this election year. The ban on partial-birth abortion has been dying a slow, judiciary death for a while now and no one seems to care.

Women's primary issues and concerns, in no particular order, are:

The survey found that women are eager to hear more discussion from the candidates on issues such as violence against women, healthcare, pay equity between the sexes, and access to child care. Reproductive rights and freedom of choice were found to be particularly important issues for younger women aged 18-24.

Erm, I count at least three of those that shouldn't just be feminist talking points, but of concern to everyone. Violence against women? Healthcare reform? Pay equity? Access to child care? I'm sure there are almost as many babydaddies looking for affordable day care as there are babymommas.

So that puts the number well above 50%. Why are these issues getting no play? Maybe they are, but not really on a national level. Reasons for this? I don't know, I'll wager some guesses.

This is wartime. Like all other wartimes, war discourse rules the debate. Iraq is a valid topic, I grant. Less valid is the question of service in Vietnam and Texas, respectively, 30+ years ago.

Blame John Kerry; blame moveon.org; blame those insufferable and poorly spoken swiftboat vets for truth; blame their Republican handlers. This is bi-partisan stupidity. It's undercutting the spotlight issues, and completely obliterating the ones talked about in that survey-- each of which should be spotlight issues.

There's also the economy to worry about. People tend to forgo worrying about perks like day care and equal pay when they're unemployed. The essential and valid point that day care and equal pay should be rights, not perks, takes a back seat when no one's getting their paper. There's nothing less equal than unemployment.

I can't see this lasting though. It's going to be a squeaky tight election by all estimates (except Chris Matthews', and it's increasingly hard to take him seriously). If 60% of undecided voters are women, then I would think touching on these topics would be a great way to bolster the bottom line. It would work especially well for a populist like John Edwards.

Hopefully they figure it out. Then, hopefully, whomever figures it out stands by their promises and pushes these agendas. They probably won't, but that's a different problem altogether.

Anecdotally, I find it strange that this poll was conducted by Lifetime Television, yet had nothing to say about whether Valerie Bertinelli's snubbing for a cabinet level position is a factor in the political alienation women feel.

Incidentally, KRON4 are the same hard-hitting journalists who brought you whistle-tips, and the irascible Bubb-rubb and Li'l Sis. Once again I thank them for their vigilance. Woo-woo