Conservative women, many of whom experience constant frustration with the contemporary feminist movement, are eager to mock liberals when they toss accusations of sexism around with reckless abandon.
I did it just this morning.
So when a conservative woman has a legitimate claim of sexism, it is difficult to make that argument without looking hypocritical. We get it. But most of us do not argue sexism is dead, and few females in modern politics have experienced attacks on the level of what Kellyanne Conway has experienced since taking the helm of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last summer. Those attacks, by the way, have come from the very people who purport to be advancing the feminist cause.
Here’s what Conway said on that topic at the Family Leadership Summit on Saturday:
“If you want to disagree on policy — if you disagree on tax reform or health care reform or immigration or you’re for abortion and I’m not — then say that,” Conway said. “Disagree that way, that’s what America is. But so much of the criticism of me is so gender-based…[about] how I look or what I wear or how I speak. It’s really remarkable, and it totally undercuts modern feminism.”
Note that Conway does not carry on as though these gender-based attacks constitute insurmountable obstacles to basic sexual equality or suggest that they indicate American society is an unyielding patriarchy. That’s a key distinction. In fact, she’s arguing they actually impede productive policy discussions.
And, more importantly, Conway is demonstrating how her detractors are abandoning the principles of modern feminism to tear down the accomplishments of a successful woman, suspending their own rules on the justification that Conway is pro-life and supportive of Donald Trump. The impulse to exclude, for contemporary feminists, triumphs over decades of rhetoric on the importance of supporting professional women.
The most iconic feminist of our time is very clear on the movement’s responsibility to uplift other women. Speaking on the importance of supporting the next wave of females interested in pursuing careers as elected officials, Hillary Clinton told a Girls Inc. gathering in March, “We need to send a message to every girl that she is valuable, powerful, and deserving of every chance and opportunity to pursue and achieve her own dreams.”
Feminists should ask themselves whether their peculiar attacks on Conway as a woman contribute to or detract from that message if it’s one they even believe in to begin with. Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
