Voter Participation (Average) - Female

Voter Participation (Average) - Female in United States

United States

Voting is a form of active social engagement, which is associated with better health and health outcomes. Furthermore, election outcomes affect many aspects of life, including individual wealth, rights, education, social services programs and health care access and quality. 

Women gained the right to vote a century ago after decades of relentless work by suffragists and, since 1980, have consistently voted at significantly higher rates than men. There is evidence that women vote differently from men, focusing on systemic issues such as funding for child welfare and public health. 

Although voter turnout has increased steadily over the last several decades, disparities continue to exist among certain groups of women. The prevalence of voter turnout was higher among:

• Non-Hispanic white adults compared with non-Hispanic Black, Asian and Hispanic adults. A recent study found that strict photo identification laws negatively impact the turnout of Hispanic, Black and mixed-race citizens.
• Those with a bachelor’s degree or higher compared with those with less than a bachelor’s degree.

People without disabilities compared with those with disabilities.

Strategies can be implemented at multiple levels to increase voter participation in the United States, such as removing barriers by simplifying voter registration processes, improving accessibility and targeting underrepresented populations like high school and college students.

Healthy People 2030 identifies civic participation as a key issue in the Social and Community Context domain and has a goal of increasing the proportion of the voting-age population who vote.

Abbott, Stephen. 2010. “Social Capital and Health: The Role of Participation.” Social Theory & Health 8 (February): 51–65. https://doi.org/10.1057/sth.2009.19.

Hajnal, Zoltan, Nazita Lajevardi, and Lindsay Nielson. 2017. “Voter Identification Laws and the Suppression of Minority Votes.” The Journal of Politics 79 (2): 363–79. https://doi.org/10.1086/688343.

Kim, Saerom, Chang-yup Kim, and Myung Soon You. 2015. “Civic Participation and Self-Rated Health: A Cross-National Multi-Level Analysis Using the World Value Survey.” Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health 48 (1): 18–27. https://doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.14.031.

Miller, Grant. 2008. “Women’s Suffrage, Political Responsiveness, and Child Survival in American History.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 123 (3): 1287–1327. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2008.123.3.1287.

Schur, Lisa, Meera Adya, and Mason Ameri. 2015. “Accessible Democracy: Reducing Voting Obstacles for People with Disabilities.” Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy 14 (1): 60–65. https://doi.org/10.1089/elj.2014.0269.

Solomon, Danyelle, and Connor Maxwell. 2019. “Women of Color: A Collective Powerhouse in the U.S. Electorate.” Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/women-color-collective-powerhouse-u-s-electorate/.