As college students of the 21st century, it can be easy to forget that women weren't allowed to vote as recently as 89 years ago.
To remind students of the struggle for women's suffrage, the history department, women's studies program and women's commission combined to sponsor an event last Thursday highlighting Susan B. Anthony, one of the forerunners of the women's movement.
The event, a live dramatization in which Sally Matson played Anthony, was planned after the Women's Commission read some startling statistics about female voters.
Sylvia Foster, the educational program coordinator for the President's Commission, noted an article from the Washington Post that stated 20 million unmarried women chose not to vote in the 2004 election.
"We're really grateful for how far women's rights have come," Foster said, "but we have a long way to go."
Female voters on campus expressed excitement about voting.
"I [think] that female voters feel more empowered to vote in this election," said junior Becky Shreenan, a first-time voter in favor of Sen. Barack Obama. Shreenan believes the women running for office have helped this empowerment. "[It's] opened a lot of women's eyes about how influential they can be in this country."
Historically, women voters have had an important impact on elections, according to professor Ellen Fitzpatrick, a specialist in U.S. women's history and a commentator for the current election on PBS.
"The turnout among women voters tends to be higher than among men voters," Fitzpatrick said, making women a significant variable in the election.
The importance of women voters in this election hasn't been lost on either candidate.
"Since 1980, there has been a 'gender gap' in American presidential elections that indicates different preferences among male and female voters on issues and candidates," Fitzpatrick said. "For that reason, and in an effort to recruit women voters drawn to Hillary Clinton's candidacy, both candidates have directly appealed to women voters."
Fitzpatrick said Sen. John McCain's choice of Palin as his running mate was "unquestionably designed, in part, to appeal to women voters."
Junior April Bergeron likes Palin because she said she's easy to relate to.
"As a female, I would have to say that Sarah Palin represents me the best," Bergeron said. "I believe that she and McCain would do the better job in representing what I want and what is important to me."
Bergeron said the fact Palin has a son in Iraq and an infant with Down syndrome makes her different from the average politician.
"These are the types of things that affect ordinary people in real life," Bergeron said. "They particularly hit home for me, working with special needs preschoolers and having a boyfriend currently deployed to Iraq."
On the other hand, freshman Amy Keding, an Obama supporter, said she had no clue who Palin was when she was first introduced. Now, she said she doesn't "trust anything she says."
Junior Sarah Callender admits that Palin has a "down-to-earth" quality about her, but is concerned that people may overlook her policies in favor of her relatability.
"It's frightening that people are basing their votes based on family values and not the issues," she said.
While Callender applauds Palin for being a strong role model, she wonders about how Palin would raise a special needs infant while in office.
"It concerns me how she's going to balance the family dynamic with running the country," Callender said.
Despite all the talk about Palin, most polls have shown that women are leaning more democratically in this election, said Dante Scala, the chairperson of UNH's political science department.
"When it comes down to it, you want to vote for the person who represents you based on their views, not their gender," said Shreenan, the first-time voter and Obama supporter. "Obama represents me best purely because his views are similar to mine. Whether it is women's rights, education or foreign policy, I seem to agree with what he says."
Said Bergeron. Voting is an important way to validate the work of Susan B. Anthony and all of the other forerunners of the women's movement.
"Women fought to get the right to vote, and to not [vote] is almost like a slap in the face," she said.
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