Week 2

History and Politics

            It began with the First Wave and the right to vote.  Women were “jailed, fined, and endured hunger strikes” (Rowe-Finkbeiner 22) to achieve the ballot.  Susan B. Anthon cast an illegal vote in 1872 and was promptly jailed and fined.  Alice Paul founded the National Women’s Party and picketed the White House until she was arrested and went on a hunger strike. 

            Next came the Second Wave with its noteworthy activists including Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan.  The Second Wave fought through legislative process to “increas[e] gender equality in the workplace, access reproductive health care and sexuality information, [pass] civil-rights legislation that made discrimination on the basis of sex or race illegal…, secure equal pay for equal work, elect more women to public office, legal[ize] abortions, and [achieve] a ban on discrimination in schools and lending, among other things” (26). 

Now, however, many young women refuse to term themselves feminists and too few of them vote.  This apathy comes from people thinking equality has been achieved or that their votes don’t matter (186).  Turns out Bush is actively working against abortions and family planning.

Fortunately Obama’s pretty great.  He brings in the young voters and he doesn’t hate women!  And then there’s Michelle.  She’s just great.

 

Interview

It seems as if I have a very civically minded group of friends. Of the thirteen people I interviewed, all of them claimed an intention of voting in this upcoming national election. Except for the Clintern. Ariana was an intern for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in Iowa. She seems to be the only person who became informed about local politics, and voted because of it. I attribute this to her increased political interaction with the Hillary campaign. Ameena voted in local Utah elections, probably because Referendum 1 was such a big issue, and she wanted to vote for Hillary in the primary.

Emily Dixon managed to vote in local elections over the summer because her beloved High School teacher insisted that she should. Otherwise, nobody seemed to know about the local process. People mentioned a lack of understanding of the process, or a lack of understanding of the issues. While I heard a lot of people claim to care deeply about their civic duty to vote, few cared enough to actually research their local elections and the issues that would directly affect them. Most people seem to think the National election is the only one that matters, but nobody seemed apathetic because of it. I’ve always thought that the Electoral College excluded my view. Utah is the most staunchly Republican state in the Nation, and my democratic vote for president is essentially a waste. Coming to Oklahoma doesn’t seem to increase my chances of helping to elect a Democratic President. I don’t know why I always took for granted my ability to sway local elections. I want to blame it on Utah. But my respondents weren’t all from Utah, and they weren’t all Democrats. They all just seemed uninterested in local elections, but dutifully bound to national elections (albeit probably they were just saying that for posterities sake).

I didn’t notice a difference among genders; I’d say it’s just a testament to apathetic youth.