Women And Obama

I hate gender politics. It is demeaning to assume that women care less about the economy and jobs than do men, and equally demeaning to assume that men care less about our children’s health and education than do women. And even though Republicans are most often accused of being anti-woman, I continue to be shocked at just how incredibly tone-deaf our President’s campaign for reelection has been in regard to women.

While both parties have concerted efforts to draw female voters to their ranks, only the Obama For America campaign has gone so far as to send a woman out to denigrate both our intelligence and our experience.

Obama spokesperson Stephanie Cutter said this on Monday: “We’ll continue doing what we have been doing, trying to get the president’s message out on the ground. Whether it’s in the suburban areas of Northern Virginia, or Denver, Ohio, to talk about what the president wants to do in the future. That’s the other thing that you find most often with women. They’re not really concerned about what’s happened over the last four years, they really want to know what’s going to happen in the next four years.”

Essentially Cutter is suggesting that women are stupid; we don’t care about the past, we look blindly to the future and we make no connection between past policies and future possibilities. You know, stupid.

Women are not stupid, and Cutter’s acknowledgement of this would be more helpful to her boss’s efforts than her demeaning and condescending empty rhetoric.

The fact is, women start two out three new businesses in our country, we make 85 percent of the healthcare decisions and we make 85 percent of consumer purchases. In other words, we are an economic engine that drives a great part of our economy.

Under this President, women have suffered in record numbers. More women are living in poverty today than at any time in the last 17 years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more women have lost jobs under this President than men and there are currently 5.7 million unemployed women in our country. The unemployment rate for women between the ages of 20 and 24 has gone from 10.3 percent to 11.7 percent and according to the NY Times unemployment among single women has gone from a pre-recession rate of 6 percent to 11 percent.

Under this President our national debt has spiraled to over $16 trillion dollars, leaving every woman in the country to shoulder $51,000 of debt – an increase of $16,000 in the last four years.

What’s even worse is the President’s apparent lack of respect for the experience and counsel of women. Stories of women being cut out of high-ranking meetings, talked over, ignored and disparaged are rampant in books and articles written especially about the early days of the Obama administration. Former Obama economic advisor Christine Romer said she often felt left out of an internal boys club and felt boxed out and “like a piece of meat.”

According to Ron Suskind’s book, “Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington and the Education of a President” former Obama communications director Anita Dunn said “This place would be in court for a hostile workplace… because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”

And perhaps most damning of all, women in the Obama White House are not only severely outnumbered, they are underpaid. The President, who accuses the Republican party of being anti-women, consistently pays his female staffers 18 percent less than the men. And that is according to a 2011 White House report.

The President should take a break from his fundraisers and spend a couple of minutes talking directly with American women.

Businesswomen want to keep their businesses afloat without the invasive regulations and taxation of this administration. They want to succeed, expand, and grow new jobs without the crushing cost of implementing Obamacare. They want to enjoy the fruits of their labor and sacrifice and be able to pass some of that down to their children. Just like businessmen do.

Mothers want their children to be healthy and happy and to live in safe communities and receive quality educations that will launch them into satisfying and productive careers. They want their children to look to the future with optimism and encouragement and the belief that their opportunities are truly unlimited. Just like fathers do.

Women harbor the same intelligence, dreams and desires as our fathers, brothers and husbands, and we have earned the same deference and respect. It’s just embarrassing that our President hasn’t figured it out yet.

Note to Cutter: women can’t afford four more years of your boss. And neither can men.