Violence Against Women Emerging as Important 2006 Election Issue

Lifetime Networks, as part of their new “Our Lifetime Commitment: Stop Violence Against Women” Campaign and in conjunction with National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, commissioned Roper Poll to undertake “the largest women's multi-platform research project ever undertaken by a television network”—the Lifetime Women's Pulse Poll. It covered a variety of issues, from politics to pop culture, and one of the most interesting results is that voters are citing violence against women as an important midterm election issue.

Violence Against Women Is Seen as Key Election Issue: Nearly all women (97 percent) feel that the issue of domestic violence and sexual assault against women and girls is important and will impact who they vote for in the 2006 mid-term elections.

Violence Against Women of Equal or Greater Importance to Voters than Expected Top Issues Like Homeland Security, Jobs and the Economy, the War in Iraq and the Environment: Nearly eight out of ten (77 percent) women and men said that preventing violence against women was of paramount importance to them as an election issue - more so than or on par with issues that receive much greater attention such as jobs and the economy (79 percent), health care (79 percent), education (80 percent), homeland security (68 percent), the war in Iraq (65 percent) and the environment (63 percent).

To be quite honest, I find that rather surprising. Pleasantly surprising, but definitely unexpected. Some of the other findings are instrumental in providing context.

Violence Against Women Perceived as an Increasing Problem: Six out of ten (59 percent) Americans feel violence against women is worse today than it was ten years ago. Sixty-one percent personally know a woman who has been the victim of violence.

And this is very encouraging:

Americans Are Starting to Take Action: Three in four parents (73 percent) say they have explicitly talked to their children about violence against women being wrong. Among those who knew a friend or family member was being abused, an overwhelming 87 percent said to have intervened in some way to help the victim, including reaching out beyond their immediate circle to police (46 percent), local shelters (35 percent), the internet (28 percent) and hotlines (24 percent).

It’s also informative. If 87% of people—both women and men—are intervening to help victims, it’s no wonder that so many people are interested in seeing their elected representatives get involved in this issue, too. Are you listening, Dems?

"As we head to Washington, D.C., for the fifth year-in-a-row, we are encouraged that this poll suggests that violence against women is top of mind and that women and men are taking action to stop it," said Meredith Wagner, Executive Vice President, Public Affairs, Lifetime Entertainment Services.

Violence against women is one of those issues to which there’s no drawback in supporting it passionately. It’s not controversial to champion protecting women from violence and sexual assault, by which they are disproportionately victimized. And, clearly, it’s an issue of concern to lots of voters. Sometimes issues like this aren’t given lots of attention, because they’re not controversial—Duh, nobody’s for violence against women, so what’s the point of making a big point of saying how you’re against it? But that’s the wrong attitude for two reasons. First of all, there are people who are for violence against women: the perpetrators of violence. Acting as though it’s a non-issue ignores the reality that there are a lot of people who don’t share the conventional wisdom that hurting and exploiting women is wrong. Secondly, being a vocal advocate on an issue like this is concrete evidence of a genuine concern, and when no one’s really talking about it with regularity, it gives the person who speaks up the ability to lead the conversation.

If the Dems made “Stop Violence Against Women” an integral part of their platform, it would be up to the GOP to say “Me, too!” for a change. It’s smart politics—and compassionate politics to boot.

And it would fit in quite nicely with a Pro-Woman platform plank that also encompassed issues like reproductive choice, birth control access, workplace equality, etc.—a plank that’s altogether absent from the Dems’ current 6-point midterm issue list.