A reporter for National Journal interviewed 47 young women, most of them in their mid-twenties, and found what should be not entirely pleasing news for the Clinton campaign: they'll vote for Hillary, but they are not fired up for Hillary.
You say that that is enough—all she ultimately needs is their votes. Not quite true:
To win in 2016, Clinton doesn't just need half-hearted support from young women; she needs them to be a base of her grassroots efforts, as fired up as young people were for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. But even as more and more young women are embracing the "feminist" label—with pop-culture icons like Beyoncé making it central to their public personas—the feminism that Clinton represents seems increasingly outmoded. While her campaign banks on young feminists like Svokos and Schaffer being "Ready for Hillary," these women say they're ready for more.
While it is good news indeed for the culture and body politic if young feminists aren’t knee jerk pro-Clinton, it should be noted that the interviewees do seem drawn from a certain milieu: one is a fellow at the Huffington Post, another is an editor at Vice and another is an online editor at something called New York Inquiry. I rather suspect these are young women for whom Jessica Valenti is a household name. They describe their brand of feminism as “intersectional,” whatever that means.
Mirhashem writes:
Some of the concerns raised by the women I spoke to about Clinton were traditional "women's issues" like reproductive justice and equal pay. But just as many brought up police brutality, criminal-justice reform, and environmental issues as primary concerns—and as integral to what they mean by "feminism." Some of the most commonly expressed critiques of Clinton echoed those of many left-of-center Americans: She's "hawkish" on foreign affairs, "part of a political dynasty," and simply "not very progressive." Collier Meyerson, who writes for the website Fusion, told me that her ideal candidate "wouldn't be part of a legacy, and wouldn't be a career politician." A candidate more like Barack Obama—"somebody who is rooted more in community-organizing"—would fit the bill better, Meyerson says.
It would now be interesting to know what older women who consider themselves progressives and feminists feel about Clinton. Feel—not think. I assume they automatically vote for her, but, if their support is as half-hearted as it is with these younger women, Hillary Clinton may have . . . a woman problem.