Conservative Women and the GOP Gender Gap

from The American Prospect:



Conservative Women and the GOP Gender Gap

The Republican candidates' female staffers seem more concerned with one particular woman -- Hillary Clinton -- than with the American woman voter. It's hard to imagine them closing their gender gap any time soon.

Dana Goldstein | November 7, 2007 | web only



When powerful Republican women get together, they sometimes sound suspiciously like feminists.
"Outsiders portray conservative women as an anomaly, but we've been running things behind the scenes for years while the men are out there talking about them," said Barbara Comstock, a political strategist for Mitt Romney. She was once an intern for Ted Kennedy. Before she "saw the light," that is.

Katie Levinson, a senior communications adviser to Rudy Giuliani, admitted Democrats have been historically better at integrating women's leadership into campaign machines. Female Republican volunteers are now saying, "I don't want to just be on your women's coalition, I have a lot to contribute," Levinson shared, reflecting that she feels lucky to be a woman in politics now, as opposed to in past eras.

Fred Thompson's deputy communications director, Karen Hanretty, intoned, "I have yet to meet a woman who wants the federal government to step in and say here's how you're going to get your health care." (Except when it comes to reproductive health care, of course. Then women should be extra grateful for government interference!)

The occasion for these expressions of GOP-brand feminism -- er, this conversation among conservative women -- was the National Review's "The Right Guy" panel yesterday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The idea was to gather important women working for the leading Republican presidential candidates to explain why "their guys" would be better choices for female voters in 2008 than Hillary Clinton.

National Review Washington Editor Kate O'Beirne moderated, and began with some statistics demonstrating the uphill battle conservatives face in wooing women. In 2000 and 2004, Al Gore and John Kerry won the female vote by 54 and 51 percent respectively. And in 2008, the Democratic advantage among women could deepen: In addition to the possible appeal of electing the nation's first female president, women are more likely than men to express displeasure with the current administration. Sixty-two percent now believe the Iraq war was "a mistake," compared to 52 percent of men. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=conservative_women_and_the_gop_gender_gap

Yeesh. My gender is lagging behind in the reality gap.