‘Engage Her’ Documentary Explores Barriers to Voting for Women of Color

I spoke today with tech entrepreneur Mable Yee, who is producing “ Engage Her,” a documentary that explores the barriers to voting facing women of color.

The documentary, directed by Maria Victoria Ponce, tells stories of women of color to explore why this demographic historically turns out to vote in surprisingly small numbers.

Many of the reasons we have uncovered include: coming from non-democratic, dictatorial or communist countries, lacking experience in civic engagement, language barriers, feelings that their votes don’t count or won’t be counted, not perceiving the importance of voting, etc.

Before and after launching the film this August, Mable and her team want to involve more women of color in this fall’s elections and set the foundation for empowering them as voters and civic/political participants in the long term.

Mable said that Engage Her has already developed partnerships and alliances with numerous organizations and funders. This effort will be an important contributor to voter education and mobilization this fall.

Visit engageher.wordpress.com to learn more about this important project.