In 72 days' time, you will cast your vote – unless you are young or a woman.

Research from the House of Commons library shows that fewer and fewer young people are voting. In the last General Election of 2010, half of all 18-24 year olds did not vote, and 1 million fewer women voted than men.

The least likely to vote? Young women.

When looked at from this perspective, the last five years make a bit more sense. Students now pay tuition fees at three times the price they were promised, EMA has been scrapped. Youth unemployment is stubbornly high. After all if young people don't turn out to vote, from a political management view, it's safe to ignore their voice.

Almost all analysts agree that this government’s cuts have disproportionately affected women: cuts to legal aid, refuges from domestic violence or Sure Start. But here too, fewer and fewer women are voting.

Why are the Tories’ pledging to protect pensioner benefits (leaked to the Telegraph because, yes, old people read it)? Because older people do vote.

Your generation faces unprecedented challenges. Under 25s are almost four times more likely to be unemployed than their elders. Women are still paid just 81p for every £1 earned by men, and women are much less likely to reach the top of the career ladder than men.

The obvious and easy thing for a political party to do, is to ignore the issues that matter to younger voters or women voters. After all, the logic runs, it won’t stop them from getting elected. But there is another approach.

A party can devote all their resources to changing voting patterns. This is what the Labour party is trying to do, with student voter registration drives, the “Shape your Future" consultation for young people and Harriet Harman’s “Women to Women Tour."

Harriet will be in Cambridge next week and yes, she’s coming on her Pink Bus. Despite all the criticism she has received of late, she has done more to bring women’s issues to the heart of Westminster than any other MP I know. She is utterly committed and her message is simple: “We’re women. We’re inside the system. But we’re trying to change it. We want to be mobilizing with you, on your behalf."

Harriet will be in Cambridge talking to students to encourage you to vote. She will meet women who are family lawyers, representatives from Rape Crisis and the Cambridge Women’s Refuge who are concerned that legal aid cuts have disproportionately affected vulnerable women suffering domestic abuse resulting in them staying in violent relationships. That’s what changing voting patterns mean. That is worth voting for.

So please make sure you register to vote at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. And on 7 May, please vote.

Especially if you are young. Especially if you are a woman.

The publication of this article does not constitute an endorsement of the Labour Party by Varsity and its editorial team.

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