Women's Equality Day: The role women could play in this year's election

events in several key battleground states this week, including Michigan and Wisconsin. Today is women’s Equality Day a day dedicated to honor the unique daily struggles women face and also the achievements of women’s rights activists. One of the biggest was achieved a little more than 100 years ago with the 19th Amendment giving women in our country the right to vote. Sarah Guillermo CEO of Ignite joins us now to talk more about the role women will have in the upcoming election. Sarah, good morning. >> Good morning. Thanks for having me back. Always great to chat with you. Always great to catch up. So talk to us. You know, we know it’s important for women to contribute to make sure their voice is heard. But talk to us about. >> What their vote means. This go around. >> Yeah, it’s so critical. And right now we’re seeing young people, specifically young women flex their political power at the ballot box. We’re seeing them jump into these campaigns advocate for the issues that they care about and we’re seeing them step up and run for office themselves. And it has been a while to August. Let’s be honest. And we’ve seen a surge in energy and I have no doubt that we’re going to continue to see that as we move closer to the election. And it’s definitely, you brats summer, a and and women’s votes are so critical and especially this election are so much at stake, especially when it comes a woman’s body is our autonomy in the right to choose. And it’s also, you know, we stand to make some history this time around. If we’re able to elect our first female president. And so as the CEO of the night, I can tell you that this is going to be monumental for building political ambition and a lot of hope among young swat among young women and months young women of color. >> You know, we mentioned the 19th Amendment. That’s what gave women the right to vote in the U.S. But since then, there have been factors in barriers still preventing women from voting. Let’s break these barriers down. Let’s talk about these different issues. >> Yeah, there. You know, you’ve done a lot of research from us. And one of the ones that we found is that there still is feeling of like being unprepared. Blake, that year entire ballot. And, you know, some of them are multiple pages. Lots of different variations that ballot and they feel like it. That asked and people don’t know how to prepare for. They do not a complete sometimes I don’t even know how to find the test or where to turn inside test. And the other Bay area that we’re finding is that there is a disconnect between what their vote and how that actually applies to their daily lives and their families lives and their communities lives. And so that disconnect makes it really challenging and has become such a big barrier. And then one of the other ones that just literally the logistical issue. So the logistical issue of registering and the whole process of voting. And so, you know, for example, during the 2020 presidential election cycle as students were leaving campus staying on campus because of the pandemic. There is this huge question that was coming to us around. Where do we even find an absentee ballot where we find mail-in ballots? Where do we how do we do that? And every single year things are shifting because of all of the voting on the legislation that’s happening around the country. And so a lot of our work at it tonight is really around our it tonight is really around our civic engagement thing. All the initiatives that we’re doing and our current campaign called ignite the vote. And so we know that voting can be Can have all of these barriers. Sometimes it feels very intimidating. And sometimes it just feels like it’s not number one for people. It could be number 10 as a priority. But really to have a healthy democracy where all participating voting needs to become a habit. And we really need to make it more accessible for everybody. And within that, what are the issues? Women are concerned about this election season, which which issues are the most passionate about? >> Yeah, there’s so many men and I just got to spend a couple days in Las Vegas earlier this month and we had a huge Texas contingency there actually with over 100 young women from 27 different states. And, you know, we had a wall of all of the issues that they were talking about. Minimum wage, access to health care. There is still a lot around gun policy and a lot around immigration that continue to become a lot of the different issues that keep coming up for them. And one of the coats that I love from the summit is that of a young one of Inside Gen Z is the blueprint of how politics is going to interact with the community and then a contingent constituencies in the future. Fascinating. Fascinating. >> Okay, Sarah, for more information for resources, working folks go. >> Yeah, folks can visit our Web page ignite National Dot Oregon Backslash vote. You can access voter registration information. How did you research and how to encourage your friends and your family