Blog by Katelynn Lucyk

Early in Wednesday night’s programming at the Democratic National Convention, the party gave tribute to their 12 women senators with a video tribute and brought them out into the spotlight on stage. Shortly after Nancy Pelosi’s speech that toted the simple phrase, “Vote for Barack Obama,” the women of the party continued to be represented in the evening’s proceedings. Senator Barbara Mikulski spoke about the importance of having women in the government, saying, “The America we know grows the economy from the middle out, not the top down.” She also addressed the 77 cents to every dollar injustice Lilly Ledbetter, among others, spoke about in Tuesday’s proceedings. Other talking points included the abolition of insurance charging women more than men, stating, “Because of President Obama’s leadership, being a woman is no longer a preexisting condition.”

These topics are not new to this year’s convention and have been included in several speeches after last week’s GOP convention attempted to court the women vote. With women representing roughly half of the American population, a majority support from them is needed for either candidate to win the election. Last week, the GOP received criticism for “trying too hard” to attain the vote by placing more women in their prime time slots after remarks by Todd Akin about “legitimate rape” became national news. In an attempt to be more strategic, the Democrats placed these remarks on the second night of the convention early in the evening after focusing more on them the first night. The focus then quickly switched to education in a smooth transition that did not dwell too much on women’s rights. These strategies in deciding the order of speeches will be largely speculated as the press awaits the post-convention bump in the polls Obama will receive after the election.