What is a Security Mom?
A security mom is a representative of a largely mythical demographic which some politicians thought would heavily influence the outcome of the 2004 Presidential election in the United States. As it turned out, although security moms certainly existed, they did not sway the outcome of the vote, and they were largely forgotten in the weeks following the election. However, the idea of the security mom lives on in some corners of American politics, and many politicians are very aware of the importance of addressing the issues which matter to security moms. According to numerous news outlets which published stories about security moms in 2004, these women are heavily focused on security issues, the threat of terrorism, and involvement in wars. The argument is that many parents are deeply concerned about the issues because they pose a threat to their children, with a typical security mom looking for a strong, authoritative President who will be able to make the right decisions for national s
CAROL TABER, FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS: A security mom can be defined both demographically and psychographically. Demographically, she’s a woman with children in the household. That is school-aged children. But the ages of the children can run the gamut from a very young child to even preschooler, through to a senior in high school. So, what they have in common is this: children in school. And in fact, the ages of security moms can vary, just as much as the ages of their children. Psycho graphically, these are women who when they go to the polls… HUME: What does psychographically mean? TABER: What’s in their heads? HUME: OK. TABER: When they go to the polls, they have the no. 1 concern: the safety and security of their children. And they’re going to be voting on this issue. HUME: What’s the rough size of this group? How many security moms are there? TABER: We don’t know how many there are because we won’t probably know until the votes have been cast. But I’ll tell you, we can guess in
