Associated Press - November 23, 2008
Darlene Superville

While Obama's election as the nation's first black president was interpreted by many as a sign of racial progress, findings in the survey done for YWCA USA suggest that much work remains to be done.

The survey, which was to be formally released Monday, also found a generational divide among women.

Younger women will demand and expect more from the new administration than their older counterparts on such pressing domestic matters as health care, the cost and quality of education, the housing crisis, and HIV and AIDS.

Lorraine Cole, chief executive officer of YWCA USA, said she didn't know why 77 percent of Generation Y women want civil rights and racial justice to be top priorities in Obama's first year - again, more than older women. Slightly more than half, or 54 percent, of women ages 30-70 said the same.

Cole noted the organization's 150-year history of empowering women and working for racial justice and said the YWCA can enlist like-minded younger women "as allies in our mission toward eliminating racism."

"Older women have seen more progress and are therefore more optimistic about racial status, race relations and racial justice issues in this country, so that may be part of the explanation," she told The Associated Press.

"Young women do not have that firsthand knowledge, but only go on their personal experiences and experiences of women like them," she said.

The survey also found that half of these younger women say ethnic- or religious-based discrimination will be a "major obstacle" to their progress as a whole, compared with 31 percent of older women.

"I don't think that the election of Obama in anyone's eyes has given anyone the belief that racism has ended in this country," Cole added.

Obama's transition office had no comment.

The telephone survey of 1,000 women ages 18-70 was conducted Oct. 28-Nov. 2, two days before Obama's election, by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The survey was commissioned to mark the social advocacy organization's 150th year - YWCA USA was founded in 1858 - and the launch of its new campaign to reach out to Generation Y women during the coming year.

Among other survey findings:

-Most women say personal economic problems present the biggest barriers to their success in the next decade, including lack of retirement savings (10 percent), major illness or medical expense (68 percent), job losses because of layoffs or jobs sent overseas (63 percent) and the cost of higher education (60 percent).

-Nine in 10 women, or 92 percent, say Obama and the new Congress should make solving the U.S. financial crisis the No. 1 priority in the first year. Obama has said the economy will be his top priority.

-Nearly three in four women, or 73 percent, say violence against women in the U.S. should be another first-year priority for Obama.

-One in three women of Generation Y, or 36 percent, say they are very worried about becoming a victim of or knowing someone who is a victim of domestic violence. Among older women, it was one in four, or 23 percent.

-Younger women are more likely than older women to say discrimination against blacks (42 percent versus 24 percent) and Hispanics (28 percent versus 18 percent) is a very serious problem.

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