Women are the majority — of the population, of registered voters and of those who actually show up at the polls. That means they’ll likely elect the next president.
And what a choice they have.
Donald Trump’s gloating about sexual assault unleashed a tsunami of condemnation and volumes of news coverage. But beyond the latest Trump controversies, both major-party candidates have said a lot — in actual quotes and website statements — about actual policies that affect women at every stage of their lives.
Let’s start with younger women. Two issues that affect them greatly? Reproductive rights and college costs.
Here’s Trump on Planned Parenthood and abortion: “As far as Planned Parenthood is concerned, I’m pro life. I’m totally against abortion.” Though “millions and millions of women” seeking screening for “cervical cancer (and) breast cancer are helped by Planned Parenthood,” he concedes, “I wouldn’t fund it.”
And here’s Clinton: “Republicans don’t mind having big government to interfere with a woman’s right to choose and to try to take down Planned Parenthood. They’re fine with big government when it comes to that. I’m sick of it.”
And what about student loans, which — thanks to the stubborn gender pay gap — take women longer to pay back than men?
Trump thinks “we should take steps to help students” — just not by helping them with their actual debt. “We can’t forgive these loans,” he says.
And Clinton? “Every student from a family making $85,000 a year or less will be able to go to an in‑state four‑year public college or university without paying tuition,” she vows. And “all community colleges will offer free tuition.”
Moving on to middle age, women are even more affected by workplace policies and the pay gap.
“If they do the same job, they should get the same pay,” Trump concedes. But “it’s very hard to say what is the same job.” And then, bafflingly: “If you start to say everybody gets equal pay, you get away from the whole American Dream.”
And, for Clinton’s part: “We should promote pay transparency across the economy and work to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to give women the tools they need to fight discrimination.”
Pressed by his daughter Ivanka, Trump has endorsed a plan to “provide six weeks of paid leave to new mothers before returning to work.”
That’s a paltry proposal for the only developed country in the world to guarantee no paid leave at all for new moms. And experts warn that limiting family leave to mothers — and excluding new dads — could widen the opportunity gap at the office.
“Too many moms and dads don’t get any paid leave at all,” Clinton counters. She said she’d “guarantee up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to care for a new child or a seriously ill family member, and up to 12 weeks of medical leave to recover from a serious illness or injury.”
Older women are most concerned about Social Security and Medicare.
Trump thinks “it’s a very good idea” to phase out Medicare for “health savings accounts.”
Clinton says she’ll “stand up to any and all Republican efforts to weaken, undermine or privatize Medicare.” She promises to “take on prescription drug companies for their price gouging and fight to make health care more affordable, including capping monthly out‑of‑pocket costs for prescription drugs and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.”
Unlike some other Republicans, Trump insists he’s “going to save Social Security,” but he claims the system has “tremendous waste, fraud and abuse. We have in Social Security thousands of people over 106 years old. You know they don’t exist.”
Clinton says she intends “to increase the funding that’s going into Social Security.” She proposes raising the payroll tax cap that limits what more affluent taxpayers pay into the system, and exploring “expanding the definition of the kind of income” to include “investments and dividends that enable a small percentage of Americans to do very well.”
There you have it, folks. You decide.
