Women (and maybe a few men, too) are waiting to see whether Carrie Bradshaw will become Mrs. Big when the "Sex and the City" movie opens Friday.

Carrie should stay a card-carrying member of the Miss clan. She is patron saint to that new breed of spinster - over 40, unmarried and successful - who belie the stereotypes that have been engraved into our collective consciousness: a single, long-suffering, hardworking woman who gets overlooked by her boss and who wants more than anything to find a husband.

Have you noticed lately that there is a lot of talk on the streets about courting Single Women and I am not talking about the dating! What’s all the buzz about, Real Estate and Politics, why because the numbers are impressive: Single women are the fastest growing demographics buying real estate today with 22% and then there is the Political arena, where single women compose of 26 percent of voters, that is 1 in 4.

Women are at a much higher risk than men of facing economic uncertainty in retirement and, on average, they'll enter retirement with considerably less savings than men will.

Women face these unique challenges because they spend fewer years in the workforce, earn less income and have longer life spans than men, according to a report released May 7 entitled, ''The Female Factor 2008: Why Women are at Greater Financial Risk in Retirement.''

Women’s Voices, Women Vote, an organization that does first-rate work to register unmarried women and African American voters, has recently been wrongly accused of engaging in voter suppression.

The reality is the opposite. In just the past six months, WVWV has submitted 400,000 voter registration applications. About 1/3 of these are minority voters. In North Carolina, from February until the primary registration deadline it helped 26,000 people register to vote. The majority of these voters are African American. It is because of WVWV’s work that they are able to vote in the primary.

Read the original article at Wired.com

By Sarah Lai Stirland May 05, 2008 | 9:29:38 PM

The Washington, DC non-profit group Women's Voices, Women Vote says that more than half of the North Carolinians it helped to register to vote in the presidential primary between February and April this year were African American.

"In February, March and early April of this year, WVWV registered 26,000 voters in North Carolina, approximately 57 percent of whom are African American," the organization noted in a statement issued Monday. "No organization that would spend resources to register these voters would then turn around and attempt to disenfranchise them in May."

The group says that its mailings and automated phone calls, which featured an African-American male, and another female voice, went out to "all unmarried women – white, African American and latina – as well as to African American men and married African American and Latina women."

Responding to questions raised over robo-calls and voter registration forms received by North Carolina residents, Page Gardner, President of Women's Voices. Women Vote, issued the following statement:

"Founded in 2004, the non-partisan Women's Voices, Women Vote (WVWV) pioneered the use of direct marketing techniques (direct mail and automatic phone calls) to register voter."

Womens Voices, Women Vote has registered over 400,000 unmarried women, African American and Latina voters this cycle. We have mailed applications forms, to over 10 million prospective voters in 26 states. For those unregistered people for whom we have phone numbers, we provide a robo call alerting them that they'll be receiving a registration application in the mail, and urging them to fill it out and return it.

Despite its name, WVWV isn't just about women. Founded in 2004, the group's mission statement says, "Despite their numbers, unmarried Americans are underrepresented in national elections and their voices are not being heard in our democracy. Women's Voices. Women Vote was created to activate unmarried Americans in their government and in our democracy." As part of that mission, WVWV has been engaging in national voter registration work for years.

For the NC calls:
What types of voters were being targeted?

While our focus is on unmarried women, we have worked to target other under-represented groups in through our project, the Voter Participation Center. Like many other organizations, WVWV focuses on registering unregistered voters across the country from demographic groups that are underrepresented in our democracy. Specifically we target unregistered voters and voters that have previously been registered but have moved and need to reregister. While our focus is unmarried women, we have also worked to motivate African Americans, Hispanics and young people just turning 18 years of age to register.

Since last July WVWV has generated about 400,000 voter registration applications; from coast to coast from underrepresented demographic groups. Already in this period WVWV has successfully encouraged more than 27,000 individuals to register in North Carolina alone.

Statement of William McNary, President of USAction, Co-Executive Director Citizen Action/Illinois and Board Member of Women’s Voices, Women Vote

During five election cycles, I have worked with the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition where I co-directed targeted voter registration campaigns and ‘get out the vote’ efforts to the African American community. I have also had the great privelege of serving on the Board of Directors of Women’s Voices, Women Vote – a non profit, non partisan organization whose mission is registering underrepresented Americans, primarily, unmarried women.

I am also a voter. And in this election, I am supporting Barack Obama, whom I’ve known and worked with for years. I am also an elected delegate to the Democratic Convention for Barack Obama.

Given my candidate preference and my background and associations in voter registration efforts, I can say with great conviction, there was no effort to suppress or confuse African American voters, or any other voters in the state of North Carolina by Women’s Voices, Women Vote.

I have seen up close the work of Women’s Voices. Women Vote and know well the commitment, passion and leadership our organization has shown in helping make the voices of unmarried women and other underrepresented voters heard. There may have been mistakes made in this particular registration drive in North Carolina, but Women’s Voices, Women Vote’s motives were not malicious or intended in any way to confuse voters. Ironically, just the opposite. I know the staff is making every effort to right the situation.

Read the original column at Huffington Post

Update
Statement of Page Gardner, President, Women's Voices, Women Vote

WVWV answers questions re: North Carolina registration effort

In an attempt to prevent further confusion surrounding our voter registration efforts prior to the North Carolina primary, Women's Voices. Women Vote took the extra step of attempting to stop the remaining mail from being delivered to homes.