Charles Bruner served in the Iowa legislature from 1978 to 1990 and was founding director of the Child and Family Policy Center from 1989 through 2016. For the last six years, he headed a Health Equity and Young Children initiative focusing on primary child health care for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

A child tax credit, paid family leave, child care and preschool, and home and community services—President Joe Biden mentioned all of those in his plan for a caregiving, families, and children’s agenda, which he presented in an April 9 speech.

Melinda French Gates mentioned those policies in her guest commentary for CNN on June 20, explaining why she is supporting Biden and other women should do so, as well.

According to a recent KFF poll of American women, those issues could be key to educating and energizing women to be difference makers in the 2024 presidential election.

Biden emphasized in that April speech, “If we want the best economy in the world, we have to have the best caregiving economy in the world.” He went on to describe how investments in the child tax credit and paid family leave are needed to truly support families so they can provide care to their children and other family members. He explained how investments in child care, preschool, and home and community-based services for persons with special health care needs are needed to strengthen the “workforce behind the workforce.”

Gates wrote in her guest opinion, “Biden is, put simply, the greatest champion for caregivers the Oval Office has ever had.” His agenda not only supports families in their caregiving and breadwinning roles, but also values and better compensates those paid caregivers (disproportionately women), who now represent many of the lowest and most underpaid workers in society.

The KFF poll found that 70 percent of women are “frustrated” with their choices for president this year, and 68 percent are “anxious” about the election. That finding holds for Democrats, Republicans, and independents.

Their dissatisfaction in part is because of the negativity of the current campaign. Women who back Trump tend to say they support his stands on issues, rather than on character. About two-thirds of those planning to vote for Biden “say the candidates’ personal characteristics matter most to their vote.” At least in some measure due to negativity, one in five Democrats and Republicans say they are “uninterested” in the election. Two in five independents feel the same way.

In many respects, the poll shows that women want to vote for someone and want to do so because of both character and stands on issues. Their “frustration,” “anxiety,” and “disinterest” in the election are consistent with the prevailing media coverage of the campaign, which is largely negative and oppositional.

If the media will not give attention to a caregiving, families, and children’s agenda, however, that does not mean there is not one worthy of attention. We need to speak about it.

Moreover, upwards of twenty percent of women in the United States are in such caregiving roles: nurses, child care workers, direct care workers in nursing homes and other health facilities, educators, counselors, and providers of home and community-based services. They and their families would have additional benefits if Biden is re-elected, with a working majority in Congress to pass the caregiving, families, and children’s agenda. They would be great carriers of this message.

Most importantly for our future, 73 million children in this country deserve these policies.