Washington, D.C. – More than 80 percent of active registered Democratic women did not attend the 2004 Iowa caucus and in 2007 those women who seem less likely to attend a caucus give the greatest margin of support to Senator Hillary Clinton.   EMILY’s List WOMEN VOTE!, an independent program run by the nation’s largest political action committee, will seek to address both these factors in its statewide campaign, Iowa WOMEN VOTE! – You Go Girl!  Iowa WOMEN VOTE! fielded a web survey of Iowa Democratic women voters to learn about the barriers to engaging more women in the caucus process.

Based on the findings and building on ten years of experience in mobilizing women voters through its WOMEN VOTE! program, EMILY’s List has created a tailored program to reach out to Democratic women in Iowa and encourage them to participate in the Iowa caucus.  Marrying traditional field tactics with new media tools, EMILY’s List WOMEN VOTE! created the website www.yougogirl.com to give Democratic women the tools and information they need to participate in the caucuses.  The site, which will be marketed using some non-traditional techniques, is one piece of a multi-prong effort to turn-out more women at the caucuses.

For any candidate seeking the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, women are a must-win segment of the electorate. Women make up 57 percent of active registered Democrats but a smaller majority of caucus goers at 54 percent.  With several recent Iowa polls showing significant gender gaps favoring Senator Clinton over her closest rivals for the Democratic nomination, increasing the number of women caucus goers can provide the margin of victory in what has continued to be a tight race in Iowa.

EMILY’s List WOMEN VOTE! began shaping its Iowa Women Vote! Program by fielding a web survey in October 2007. The poll, which targeted Democratic women, sought to gauge the likelihood of caucus attendance and determine what barriers there are to attending.   Only 30 percent of those polled were absolutely certain they would participate with another 20 percent giving their chances of participating an eight or nine out of ten.

The poll then looked at presidential preference of the different groups of likely caucus goers and found that women overall favor Senator Clinton. Among those most likely to caucus, the race reflects the tight battle found in many recent public polls.  It is among those who are less likely to caucus that the preference for Senator Clinton becomes far more defined. Women who gave their chance of participation a five to seven out of ten support Senator Clinton by nearly a 30 point margin.

The survey also showed great differences among women most likely to caucus and those who were more hesitant.  For women who were still thinking about participating, concerns regarding understanding the caucus process and competing priorities for work and family were significant obstacles. Many also felt they needed more information about the candidates.

Finally, the survey asked women for the kind of information that would make them more likely to participate and how they would like to receive that information. Overwhelming, women wanted clear, step by step instructions and plain English answers to their questions about the caucus.  The survey and previous experience also showed that peer to peer communications was the most effective and credible vehicle for engaging women. Armed with this information, the EMILY’s List WOMEN VOTE! Program created and launched www.yougogirl.com.

The Iowa WOMEN VOTE! website, www.yougogirl.com offers women of all ages key information on the caucuses.  From offering step by step instructions to answering commonly asked questions and offering fun and informative advice, www.yougogirl.com speaks to Democratic women of all ages. The site also features videos of Iowa women talking about their thoughts on the caucus, informative background on Senator Clinton and even make-ahead recipes for caucus night. The site will make use of social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to help women who are interested in caucusing reach out to each other. The site will be marketed using traditional tools including mailings, as well as new media banner ads on websites ranging from news to food and exercise. We will also use Google and Yahoo keyword searches that target traditional political terms like 2008 Caucus. The website will also come up when searches are conducted for non-traditional keywords like recipe, stocking stuffers, and after-Thanksgiving sales.

The website will be complimented by a series of mailings including a detailed booklet explaining the caucus process and providing key information on Senator Clinton. The mailings will target women within a universe of more than 100,000 women who voted in the last election but did not participate in the 2004 Iowa caucus.

Recognizing how important women voters are to electing women candidates and Democrats across the board, EMILY’s List established the national WOMEN VOTE! program in 1995, coining the slogan “When Women Vote, Women Win!”

WOMEN VOTE! works to expand the Democratic electorate and motivate millions of women to svote. Using sophisticated market research and a groundbreaking modeling system, EMILY’s List WOMEN VOTE! identifies key groups of women to target, determines their issue priorities, and reaches out to them with tailored messages delivered through personal contact, telephone, direct mail, television, radio, and the Internet.