Platform 51

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Categories: politics and parliament
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Girls' votes count!

Turning out on election day

"We were shown where the suffragettes had chained themselves to railings to demonstrate, and it showed me what they went through to give me the right to vote."

The forthcoming general election will be the first chance many girls will have had to vote.

For many young people MPs are grey men in grey suits a million miles away from their everyday lives and have no relevance. YWCA is showing girls in their teens and twenties that politics is about speaking up and changing things, right here, right now.

Kayleigh, a 23-year-old mum says "I didn't really used to think much about politics, it didn't seem important. But slowly it started to dawn on me that these things affect everyone. The turning point was when YWCA arranged for us to visit the House of Commons. We were shown where the suffragettes had chained themselves to railings to demonstrate, and it showed me what they went through to give me the right to vote. I signed up to vote this time."

YWCA's democracy programme for young women tackles their disengagement with politics by going to the root of the problem; lack of information. We tell young women how Parliament works and how government runs locally and nationally. We encourage them to find out more about political parties and their opinions. The programme ends with a mock election.

Kayleigh says: "If young people aren't engaging in politics, this isn't because they don't care; they just don't know. When I talk to others about things that are happening around them it's not like they're not interested. For me, politics is about passion, not qualifications."

Nineteen-year-old Jude, who is unemployed and lives in Wolverhampton, agrees: "The MPs' expenses scandal has turned people against politics. Lots of people may not even bother to vote in this year's election, but my view is unless you vote you ain't got the right to moan, so I'll be voting, but I'm not sure who for.  I'll encourage my friends to vote, too. We're over 18 now and I'll tell them: 'get up, have your say, this is a major turning point. If you don't vote you don't have voice'. "

"When I turn up at the voting booth I don't know what I'm going to do. But I know it's my responsibility, my duty, to vote. One vote can make a difference, especially at this election, and that vote can be yours."

Jude knows the only way to get her voice heard is not to turn away, but to turn out and vote on election day.