When Carly Fiorina forcefully took on Donald Trump during the second GOP presidential debate — after his less-than-flattering comments about her personal appearance — millions of women across America felt a sense of pride watching the lone female candidate defend herself on stage. Yet, when she later denounced Planned Parenthood and abortion, many of those same women labeled her an anti-feminist.
In fact, in a September 2015 New York Times article titled, “Liberal Feminists Ponder Friends, Foes, and Carly Fiorina,” one woman is quoted as saying, “It’s so weird — she looks like one of us, but she’s not.”
But when did abortion become the litmus test on who’s a feminist and who’s not? When did feminism come to mean strict adherence to liberal policies? Since when is a candidate only considered a feminist when she builds a platform on women’s issues? And when did encouraging women to formulate their own opinions equate to requiring women to agree with the Left’s opinions?
“Being a feminist and being a Republican aren’t mutually exclusive,” Amanda Bailey, a young conservative from Virginia, argued. “Carly is shedding light on the fact that in addition to believing in equal rights for men and women, feminism also means allowing a woman to be whomever she wants to be.”
We have seen this sentiment echoed in many of Carly Fiorina’s interviews, videos, debate responses, and on her social media accounts.
“A feminist is a woman who lives the life she chooses,” Carly reiterated in one of her emails to supporters. “A woman may choose to have five children and home-school them. She may choose to become a CEO or run for president.”
In other words, when we teach young girls and women to speak their minds without fear of judgment, it means accepting when many of them are pro-life. It means accepting when many of them would rather let the free market, not the federal government, push companies into offering paid parental leave. It means accepting when many of them aren’t willing to ignore allegations that Planned Parenthood may have committed a federal felony.
“Democrats have perpetuated the belief that they’re the pro-women party,” said Christian Costa, Co-Chair of Students for Carly. “Unfortunately, that has led many people to automatically view the GOP as anti-women. I think Carly is a great example of a strong, Republican woman who is helping to erase the stereotype that the Right hates women.”
True feminism empowers women not only by presenting them with both sides of an argument and allowing them to draw their own conclusions, but also by tolerating when their conclusions may not align with our own. To discourage young girls and women from thinking outside of one political party’s agenda by threatening that doing so prohibits them from being feminists, is in itself anti-feminist.
