By Cristina Chang

Tens of millions of women cast their ballots on Tuesday, November 4^th. For some, like me, it was their first time. We voted for health care. We voted for the environment. And we voted for our country.

What is perhaps most striking is the fact that over 80% of Hillary Clinton supporters backed Obama, while over 10% defied their candidate’s endorsement and voted for McCain. Clinton had attracted much support from feminists and their overwhelming choice was Obama over McCain, despite the fact that his running mate Sarah Palin would have been the first female vice president. Obama, who has received many endorsements from women’s right groups, no doubt won an overwhelming majority of women voters because of his concerns for women’s issues, including but not limited to his support of equal pay for equal work and his pro-choice platform.

The League of Women Voters, a group that urged a no vote for propositions 4 and 8, saw only success in 4. Proposition 4, which would require parental notification for a minor’s abortion, failed for the third time, seeing little change among public perception. As in prior years, the proposition similarly came under attack for possibly placing minors at risk and encouraging them to resort to dangerous forms of abortion if they avoided speaking with their parents. Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in California, narrowly passed, thus prompting opponents to engage in a legal challenge once more.

Overall, it was a victory for women as millions voted, more female senators were elected to office than ever before, and a new president-elect, promising to heed to the political needs of women, was swept to victory.