SCHMIDT: I think in any organization where women are not at the table, where it is skewed male in today’s day and age, that’s an organization that’s deficient. That’s an organization that’s going to have problems. It’s one of the problems we have structurally in the Republican Party. We don’t have enough women at the table. But any company, any organization in today’s day and age that doesn’t give equal opportunity to women, that doesn’t advance women to the table, is going to be an organization that has difficulty competing. [Think Progress]
WASHINGTON – Over the weekend Steve Schmidt committed the ultimate political crime. He told the truth.
It’s called tokenism. Because when Republicans do have a woman present, it’s almost always for show.
See Sarah Palin, who wasn’t even vetted, but thought just because she was a woman she could seduce Hillary voters into voting for McCain.
It’s the ultimate insult, because women are hardest on women. We don’t vote for her just because she’s female. She has to earn it.
The other problem is Republicans voting against things like the Violence Against Women Act. They just don’t understand what’s important to modern women. They also don’t believe in equal pay.
A big part of that problem lies in their traditionalism, the religious fundamentalism that still guides so many Republican men and women who still believe that women can’t be co-equal breadwinners at a time when families really do need two incomes. That men shouldn’t be expected to do half the domestic chores, too. Because when both parents work, the woman can’t work all day, just like a man, then be expected to come home and do 100% of the domestic duties.
Republicans have a long, long way to go before they understand modern women.
Taylor Marsh, is an author and veteran political analyst who has contributed to Huffington Post, The Hill, U.S. News & World Report, as well as cable outfits from Al Jazeera to CNN and beyond. A former Broadway performer, Miss Missouri in the Miss American Pageant, Marsh also dabbled in radio and wrote, directed and produced her one-woman show “Weeking for J.F.K.” Author of The Hillary Effect, Marsh’s book is available at Barnes and Noble and on Amazon. Her new-media magazine www.taylormarsh.com covers national politics, women, foreign policy, and culture.