Carly Fiorina declared during a speech Thursday evening that the liberal idea of feminism “isn’t working.”
The former Hewlett-Packard CEO and Republican candidate for president spoke at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., about the “state of women,” presenting her own definition of feminism.
“Today, only 23 percent of women identify with the term feminist,” Fiorina said in her prepared remarks, according to National Journal. “Liberal ideas aren’t the answer. Their version of feminism isn’t working.”
“It is time for a new definition,” she continued. “A feminist is a woman who lives the life she chooses. We will have arrived when every woman can decide for herself how to best find and use her God-given gifts. A woman may choose to have five children and homeschool them. She may choose to become a CEO, or run for president.”
During a phone conversation with press ahead of the speech, Fiorina labeled it “the first major speech of this campaign season by a Republican or a Democrat on the state of women in America.”
“The left has controlled this conversation. They have defined the term ‘feminism’ and ‘feminist’ in a certain way,” she affirmed during the press call, according to Politico. “And I think it’s important that we reclaim that term.”
Fiorina particularly hit the left for spreading false messages about the Republican “war on women,” accusing current liberal feminism of stifling conversation and employing women as a “political weapon.”
“Feminism began as a rallying cry to empower women — to vote, to get an education, to enter the workplace,” Fiorina explained. “But over the years, feminism has devolved into a left-leaning political ideology where women are pitted against men and used as a political weapon to win elections.”
“Being empowered means having a voice,” she added. “But ideological feminism shuts down conversation — on college campuses and in the media. If you are a man — or a woman — who doesn’t believe the litanies of the left, then you are ‘waging a war on women’ or you are a ‘threat to women’s health’ or you are variously described as ‘window dressing’ — Joni Ernst — or offensive as a candidate — Carly Fiorina.”
Fiorina — who has been fervent in her criticism of the only other female candidate in the race, Hillary Clinton — notably did not mention the former secretary of state during her speech Thursday.
