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Women continue to surpass men in voter turnout. Will it pay off this November?

October 15, 2020
Women voter outreach 1935
File:Women voter outreach 1935 English Yiddish.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
Sandra Salathe
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Gender disparities have existed for centuries, often favoring the male race. However, one category men do not excel in, evidently happens to be voter turnout. Although women were granted the right to vote decades age, 1919 to be exact, it's precisely women who continue exercising that right more frequently than men. In a recent report from The Pew Research Center, women turned out to vote at slightly higher rates than men in every U.S. presidential election since 1984.

During the 2016 presidential election, 63.3% women placed their ballots at the polls. A slight contrast to the 59.3% of men who voted that year. Additionally, 64% of Black women said they voted during the 2016 election, as opposed to 54% of Black men who voted that year.

During the 2018 midterm elections, voter turnout also increased in female voters by 12%. As if that weren't exciting enough, women tend to outnumber men in voter registration as well. The number of female voter registrations reached 81.3 million in 2016. Only 71.7 million men were reported to have been registered that year.

That's a stark contrast of 9.6 million people

This isn't exactly news, but it is interesting when you consider how women's healthcare, along with reproductive rights, are continuously being attacked. Although these statistics are empowering to see, will actually change anything? For a country seeing vast numbers in female voters, why do men continue governing laws pertaining to women's bodies?

In fact, female voter turnout couldn't be more important right now, what with Trump being re-elected and Amy Coney Barrett's pending confirmation to the Supreme Court. So much is at stake, making 2020 one of the most crucial elections to date.

The decisions voters make this election could echo throughout our country for decades, if not generations. We are a country united no more. Instead, a prominent line divides our country in two. But being the optimistic individual that I am, I feel a change coming.

But it doesn't just end with the presidential election.

More women need to continue participating in state and local elections in order for the change to truly reverberate. When primary leaders can't step up to the plate, the task often falls onto state and local officials, as we discovered with our current president's mishandling of the current pandemic.

That's why state and local elections are so important. Think of it this way, the judges, District Attorneys and Attorney Generals we elect, all have the authority to alter someone's life forever. They can choose to act for the benefit of our country, or in favor of their religious and personal agenda. Which, let's face it, is how the current administration governs this country now.

If more female candidates find themselves in positions of power, both on state and local platforms, just think of the gender-inclusive agendas that could come to fruition. You're probably tired of hearing it by now, but nevertheless, please vote! Not just in the upcoming presidential election, but in every, single election after it. I believe we have the ability to alter the way our country operates, but to do so, we have to do it together.

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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.