Election 2004: Women entrepreneurs wield power in 2004 elections

by Barbara Kasoff and Terry Neese

Women's advocates

sbj@sbj.net

Terry Neese and Barbara Kasoff are co-founders of Women Impacting Public Policy, a national, bipartisan public policy organization that advocates for women in business.

You can tell the election season has started as political consultants and media pundits seem to be portraying any three people standing on the street corner as "an emerging voting bloc." Soccer Moms of the 90s are pass. Now we have Waitress Moms, Security Moms and NASCAR Dads.

But which voting group will be the critical swing vote in 2004? See if you can name this one:

They vote more often.

They're much more likely to donate money and time to politics.

No political party or presidential candidate can take their vote for granted with 38 percent being independent, 30 percent Republican and 27 percent Democrat.

They're viewed as more credible than the chamber of commerce, labor unions or environmental groups.

They comprise 13 percent of women in America and an additional 28 percent of all American women want to be like them.

They're growing in numbers twice as fast as their male counterparts.

More than 10 million of them will likely vote in 2004, a number larger and faster growing than the important and often-cited Hispanic voting bloc.

And they employ nearly 30 million Americans one out of every seven people working.

They're America's women business owners, and in 2004 to paraphrase a certain cable news channel they'll decide.

These are the findings of an unprecedented public opinion survey of both women business owners and American voter opinions released Dec. 10 by Democrat Celinda Lake of Lake Snell Perry and Republican Linda DiVall of American Viewpoint.

The survey was commissioned by WIPP Women Impacting Public Policy the nation's largest bipartisan women's business umbrella organization encompassing 25 women's business groups and more than 460,000 members. WIPP advocates solely on business issues like affordable health insurance, estate taxes, tort reform and government procurement contracting.

These issues follow the greatest concerns cited in the survey of women business owners with 45 percent naming jobs, the economy, taxes or affordable health care as their top priority compared to moral values (14 percent), Social Security & Medicare (9 percent) or terrorism and national security (5 percent). These issues move votes too with 86 percent of women business owners saying they were more likely to vote for a candidate supporting small business association health insurance plans (47 percent much more likely) and 64 percent more likely to support a candidate supporting government procurement reforms.

Women business owners are definitely in play at the presidential level, too. The survey showed 38 percent would vote for President Bush compared to 23 percent for the Democratic nominee. Adding leaning voters brings the numbers to 46 percent for Bush and 36 percent for the Democratic nominee. That means 39 percent of women business owners are potential swing voters, a constituency large enough to make the difference in nearly every battleground state.

As the co-founders of WIPP, we know through our experience just how large of a communication reach these women business owners have. Add up employees, customers, accounts payable, accounts receivable, association acquaintances, as well as the household's family, friends, school and church communications these women generally control, and you begin to see just how much influence women business owners can bring to bear on an election. Women business owners can do so with the knowledge that their opinions are respected, too.

The survey showed 35 percent of all Americans and 28 percent of all women wanted to join women business owners as an owner of their own enterprise. It's one of the reasons why the ranks of women business owners expanded at a rate of 2.8 percent annually in recent years, according to the National Women's Business Council. That's even faster than the Hispanic vote increase of 2.5 percent annually cited the Pew Hispanic Center. Combine the two to find an even faster growing demographic with Latina business startups outpacing Anglo women is business creation. Corporate formation by all women was twice the rate of their male counterparts.

So, political consultants, media pundits, corporate America and the voting public should be on notice. If understanding who votes, who contributes time and money to campaigns, who can sway support and who can make the biggest difference in the 2004 election is important, look to women business owners.