How Republicans Are Peeling Women Away from Democrats

 

Headlines this week warn that Democrats might not have a stronghold on the “women’s” vote this November.

This is good news for a lot of reasons, but it suggests that there has been a real effort by women’s groups like the Independent Women’s Forum – and others like the Susan B. Anthony List – to take charges of sexism and a “War on Women” head on.

In 2012, at the height of the Democrat’s manufactured “War on Women” campaign, the Independent Women’s Forum conducted a randomized controlled experiment to learn more about how to talk about the wage gap and proposed Paycheck Fairness Act.

Even then, when Democratic vitriol was fierce, we learned that the War on Women narrative wasn’t a silver bullet. Our experiment randomly assigned respondents to one of four treatments or a control group in which they read competing arguments about the wage gap and Paycheck Fairness Act. Across all five conditions only 34 percent of women agreed there really was a Republican “War on Women.”

Even more important, however, is that our research demonstrated that it is essential for our side to respond on major “women’s” issues like equal pay. Certainly we want more women to understand the facts behind the small wage gap – why it exists, what women can do about it, and how government interference will make things worse – but we also learned that the impact of responding on equal pay had a cascading effect. Pushing back on the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act ultimately dampened the effect on the larger “War on Women” rhetoric.

The very act of having a debate – of creating a two-sided flow of information – reduced political support for President Obama among women who had voted for him in 2008 by 12 points, from 87 to 75 percent and boosted support for Romney by 12-points from 13 percent to 25 percent.

And this negative impact also affected support for other big-government policies. The debate over the PFA, where respondents read about the economic impact the proposed law would have, actually reduced support among Obama voters for ObamaCare and the president’s comprehensive economic plans.

Political behavior research tells us that it’s disruptive when women receive a competing argument. Voters hearing new information begin to question their previous understanding of the issues, and are more likely to seek out more new information.

This election season we’ve seen many more groups – especially conservative women’s groups – actively engage in the conversation. This is a tremendous step in the right direction, and we’re apt to see a real difference at the polls next month.

Sabrina L. Schaeffer is executive director of the Independent Women’s Forum.

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  1. EThompson Member
    EThompson
    @

    I don’t understand the concern here; some of the most successful and revered conservatives are women. Let me list them:

    1. Clare Boothe Luce

    2. Ann Coulter

    3. Christina Hoff Sommers

    4. Ayaan Hirsi Ali

    5. Priscilla Buckley ***

    6. Amity Schlaes

    7. Michele Bachmann

    8. Michelle Malkin

    9 . Star Parker

    10. Controversial choice, but see Tammy Bruce: “The New American Revolution

    Wild card. My husband got the last pick – Sarah Palin.

    • #1
  2. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Given how repressive the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are: My favorite Republican Convention moment of all time was when Laura Bush held up a big sign and said “W is for Women.”

    • #2
  3. 3rd angle projection Member
    3rd angle projection
    @

    Just going by your title….Because the war on women is ironically, almost tangibly, feelingly, tangentially, intuitioningly, on purpose like is being waged by democrats? Which is to say the clueless women on the left are waking up. Not because of some Gandalf on the right has cast a spell but because you can’t fool all the people all the time. Unfortunately, it will be a short term gain because Boehner, McConnell, etc….

    • #3
  4. liberal jim Inactive
    liberal jim
    @liberaljim

    Politicians rely primarily on emotional appeals.  Liberals are much more adept at it, for they realized it is about getting and keeping power and therefore aren’t concerned with the rationality of their appeals.  I think relying arguments on single issues is unproductive.  Take the “wage gap”,  liberal’s fundamental position is based on the idea that politicians and government bureaucrats can best determine what is “fair or best” in a given circumstances.   This big brother stalinist concept is appealing only to those who are doing the deciding, but when you begin arguing the merits of the “wage gap” issue this fundamental distasteful concept is given legitimacy.  Conservatives are best served by arguing the fundamental concepts that underly most liberal ideas.  The difficulty that a large number of Republicans have is they have boughten into the big government liberal concepts.

    • #4
  5. Sabrina Schaeffer Member
    Sabrina Schaeffer
    @SabrinaSchaeffer

    EThompson:I don’t understand the concern here; some of the most successful and revered conservatives are women. Let me list them:

    1. Clare Boothe Luce

    2. Ann Coulter

    3. Christina Hoff Sommers

    4. Ayaan Hirsi Ali

    5. Priscilla Buckley ***

    6. Amity Schlaes

    7. Michele Bachmann

    8. Michelle Malkin

    9 . Star Parker

    10. Controversial choice, but see : ““

    Wild card. My husband got the last pick – Sarah Palin.

    Certainly there are plenty of qualified and talented conservative women thinkers. The bigger problem is that Republicans/conservatives/libertarians have failed to engage women voters. There’s been the idea that women and men care about the same thing — fair enough, we often do. But men and women are different and the same messages, messengers, and modes of contact don’t always work. A lot more real engagement this cycle.

    • #5
  6. Sabrina Schaeffer Member
    Sabrina Schaeffer
    @SabrinaSchaeffer

    liberal jim:Politicians rely primarily on emotional appeals. Liberals are much more adept at it, for they realized it is about getting and keeping power and therefore aren’t concerned with the rationality of their appeals. I think relying arguments on single issues is unproductive. Take the “wage gap”, liberal’s fundamental position is based on the idea that politicians and government bureaucrats can best determine what is “fair or best” in a given circumstances. This big brother stalinist concept is appealing only to those who are doing the deciding, but when you begin arguing the merits of the “wage gap” issue this fundamental distasteful concept is given legitimacy. Conservatives are best served by arguing the fundamental concepts that underly most liberal ideas. The difficulty that a large number of Republicans have is they have boughten into the big government liberal concepts.

    Good comment. Part of this same research project, IWF looked into women’s perceptions of fairness. Turns out a woman’s perception of fairness as equal outcomes (rather than equal opportunities) is the best predictor (more than gender, marital status, etc.) of her support for big government policies like the PFA. We will be digging into this concept more this year because understanding the internal motivations that drives one’s view of fairness will be very important to this battle of ideas.

    • #6
  7. Sabrina Schaeffer Member
    Sabrina Schaeffer
    @SabrinaSchaeffer

    3rd angle projection:Just going by your title….Because the war on women is ironically, almost tangibly, feelingly, tangentially, intuitioningly, on purpose like is being waged by democrats? Which is to say the clueless women on the left are waking up. Not because of some Gandalf on the right has cast a spell but because you can’t fool all the people all the time. Unfortunately, it will be a short term gain because Boehner, McConnell, etc….

    But the point I tried to make in my post is that they don’t wake up on their own. There are plenty of persuadable women, but if they only hear one-side of the story, you can bet what side they’re going to support!

    • #7
  8. EThompson Member
    EThompson
    @

    Point taken Ms. Schaeffer; I wish more female voters would refer to the women on my list as role models and follow accordingly. They are such a diversified group (in an interesting way), I can’t understand why any woman couldn’t find something to relate to!

    • #8
  9. 3rd angle projection Member
    3rd angle projection
    @

    Sabrina Schaeffer:

    3rd angle projection:Just going by your title….Because the war on women is ironically, almost tangibly, feelingly, tangentially, intuitioningly, on purpose like is being waged by democrats? Which is to say the clueless women on the left are waking up. Not because of some Gandalf on the right has cast a spell but because you can’t fool all the people all the time. Unfortunately, it will be a short term gain because Boehner, McConnell, etc….

    But the point I tried to make in my post is that they don’t wake up on their own. There are plenty of persuadable women, but if they only hear one-side of the story, you can bet what side they’re going to support!

    My faith in women who traditionally vote for democrats is very, very low. I find them not persuadable but downright hostile to facts. I hope to be wrong. We’ll see. As a voting block they’re not smart and will most always vote contrary to what they wish to be true because of, way back when, Roe v Wade. Tell me I’m wrong.

    • #9
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