CONSERVATIVE MAKING SENSE / From the desk of Cindy Allen
Many women felt the 2023 movie “Barbie” highlighted the many contradictions we face. The powerful monologue by America Ferrera’s character in that movie was one of the most talkedabout scenes from the film.
Her monologue clearly defined the impossible double standards of being a woman. It hit a nerve with women of all political and religious stripes.
The hard truth is that the political horizon in 2024 doesn’t implicate many improvements on the horizon for women in the United States.
So, what are the issues women will have to consider when making choices for president all the way down to state representatives? Neither political party feels particularly pro-woman in some of their platforms.
First and foremost are reproductive rights and healthcare.
Following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Republican state legislators have imposed severe restrictions on abortion access and reproductive care. This has created uncertainty around the legal status and availability of abortions in many states, endangering women’s health by limiting access to necessary reproductive care, especially in complicated pregnancies.
Beyond elective abortions, these restrictions may prevent women from receiving life-saving health care. There is also growing concern that access to affordable contraception will be restricted, with debates over insurance coverage and availability through health care providers.
Maternal health care in the U.S. is already poor, with rising maternal mortality rates, especially among women of color. Currently, many Republican-led states are seen as opposing women’s health care needs.
On the Democratic side, there’s concern that conflating sex and gender could negatively impact women. Sex is a biological marker assigned at birth, while gender refers to behavioral, cultural or psychological traits. Simplified and using common sense, sex is biological, and gender is identity; they are distinct.
This distinction is crucial in sports, where women have historically faced disadvantages. Title IX, passed in 1972, banned sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, boosting opportunities for women in academics and sports.
However, Biden’s Department of Education has changed the law to include sexual orientation and gender identity, sparking controversy. Many women believe that expanding the definition of “woman” to include transgender women undermines the unique experiences of biological women, potentially diluting legal protections designed for them.
Additionally, women continue to be underrepresented in government and other spheres of influence.
According to Rutgers Center for American Women in Politics, the number of women running for the U.S. House is down, but so is the number of men. Republican women’s representation among their party’s candidates is down from 2022 to 2024, while women’s share of Democratic House candidacies is about the same in 2024 as it was two years ago.
Then there are the old standby concerns for women, including domestic violence, pay gaps, affordable child care — the list goes on and on. And even though it’s not necessarily election related, a football player is getting accolades for advising women college graduates to secure their true roles as wives, mothers and homemakers and not falling for the “diabolical lies” of choosing a career. To be fair, he’s taking flak too. However, the fact remains women don’t need men to advise them on what roles they should choose.
His speech has become part of our political debate. So, in 2024, from many women’s perspectives regarding our rights and futures, we are truly the underdogs. Our rights and our chosen roles are being eroded with political narrative.
For women, it seems this election portray a quote by author Colleen Hoover. “Sometimes you have to choose between a bunch of wrong choices and no right ones. You just have to choose which wrong choices feels the least wrong.”
For me, that is just unacceptable. However, if women continue to be complacent and refuse to speak up or vote for their rights and don’t get involved in the political process, we can expect our rights to be chipped and eroded away. We can expect to continue to be marginalized.
EDITOR’S NOTE: To read more from Cindy Allen, see her blog online at https://conservativemakingsense.com/.
