On September 30th, 2020, Layla Zaidane, Executive Director & COO of Millennial Action Project (MAP), spoke at the first annual Engage Fall Salon. This event invited speakers from different generations to provide insight about the differing priorities of younger and older female voters in 2020.
In collaboration with Nancy LeaMond, EVP and Chief Advocacy & Engagement Officer at AARP, their conversation explored the generational dimension of Engage’s mission to provide all American women with the keys to lifelong economic security. At the Fall Salon, speakers and attendees celebrated bipartisanship and recognized the value in every woman’s point of view as a means of fostering successful intergenerational collaboration.
By comparing core economic priorities for each generation, Layla and Nancy were able to identify common goals for female voters of all ages while also recognizing unique challenges facing these groups. Nancy and Layla’s varying perspectives and first hand experiences helped build a framework for bipartisanship and promote key pillars of women’s economic security across generational lines.
Their conversation addressed the most pressing issues facing women today, focusing primarily on the fight to ensure women’s economic and healthcare security during a pandemic. Additionally, Nancy and Layla reflected on building intergenerational movements, what lessons can be learned from the successes of women’s rights leaders thus far, and what lawmakers can do to build on these strategies.
As more millennials are financially supporting their older relatives, Boomers are also increasingly providing financial support to their families. This dynamic has led to more intergenerational families than ever. Nancy and Layla agreed that both old and young voters are looking to elect lawmakers that will create policies that advance the interests of this growing family economy.
America’s youngest generations have suffered multiple consecutive economic crises. Layla recounted how this economic instability has led to the narrative that millennials are “killing” industries. In reality, declining home ownership and marriage rates reveal structural problems that lawmakers have failed to address and are not a result of conscious efforts by millennials to eradicate industries. Moreover, these trends display the widespread feeling among young people that they must carry the weight of short sighted political decisions.
Additionally, the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women and a nationwide reawakening about issues of racial injustice has further revealed the profound role of political leaders' decision making on voters’ lives. Young people believe the government could do more to guarantee the financial and personal wellbeing of its constituents.
Both Nancy and Layla expressed that young Americans prioritize issues over party affiliation. Moreover, creating a “middle” is not the key to constructive bipartisanship. In order to find common ground and solve this generation’s looming crises, lawmakers must aim to debunk the status quo. Through her work with AARP, Nancy has witnessed the importance of women’s communities coming together to address retirement security and the gender wage gap in an intersectional way. As pay inequality more significantly affects women of color, an array of perspectives that represent America’s youngest and most diverse generations will motivate women to engage across the color line.
This discussion ended with Nancy and Layla urging American women to seek inclusive spaces in which they can engage in intergenerational collaboration. Furthermore, as women of all ages and political leanings share a common goal of furthering women’s economic security, they should embrace this unifying agenda to advance opportunities for women nationwide.
Millennial Action Project has seen a record number of young people running for office, and 40% of these candidates are women millennials. MAP supports efforts to bring the youth voice into political decision making, and especially encourages young women to fight for a seat at the table. MAP’s initiatives aim to nurture constructive bipartisan collaboration, reform issues most important to young voters, and guarantee safe voting practices in 2020. These efforts ensure that America’s youngest and most diverse generations gain opportunities to address economic priorities of young women, placing American democracy one step closer to making Engage’s mission a reality.