What War On Women?

Ann Romney had a very good two days. It all started with Hilary Rosen, Democrat strategist, saying Ann Romney couldn’t comment on economic issues because “she has never worked a day in her life.” Oh boy, for a PR girl, that was incredibly stupid. You don’t diss Moms. Any mother, working or not, will tell you how difficult it is to stay home with small children. Not only that, as a stay at home Mom myself, I know that like me, most stay at home Moms make most of the economic decisions for our families. Ann Romney promptly got on twitter, which was exploding with outraged Moms and their defenders, first tweeting, “I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.” She has only tweeted twice, and she was followed by almost 32,000 almost immediately.

In full out damage control even First Lady Michelle Obama quickly tweeted, “Every mother works hard, and every woman deserves to be respected.” Other Democrat advisors from David Alexrod to Hilary herself tried to quell the fire on twitter, but the outrage grew. Rosen finally apologized in part with this statement: “. . . I apologize to Ann Romney and anyone else who was offended. Let’s declare peace in this phony war and go back to focus on the substance.”

Phony war? You mean like the phony war on women from the GOP on birth control? Which was completely invented and phony? That didn’t work out so well because American women knew very well they had access to inexpensive birth control at any Walgreens or Walmart. It was a joke. In this case, one can argue this is overblown, but it’s always been clear that the Democrats have a true disdain for traditional roles for women. NOW President couldn’t help herself.

TERRY O’NEILL: What would we be saying if Hillary Clinton had said this: that Ann Romney has never, has not worked for pay outside the home a day in her life? That’s my understanding that’s an accurate statement, and that raises the exact issue that Hilary Rosen was trying to get to, which is do Mr. & Mrs. Romney have the kind of life experience and if not, the imagination, to really understand what most American families are going through right now? I think that that was what Hilary was getting out, and so she left out the words “for pay outside the home.”

I hate to break it to Ms. O’Neill and Ms. Rosen, but stay at home moms have plenty of “life experience” and “imagination.” In my time raising my kids I volunteered for Health and Human Services babysitting for poor women having surgery. I was PTA President of their school. I took my kids with me to deliver Meals On Wheels to the elderly poor. I volunteered at a pregnancy crisis center helping young women through the most difficult time of their lives. I volunteered at my kid’s school for everything from reading to Kindergartners to helping with field trips, holiday parties, and end of year field days. All these things took organization, lots of WORK, and lots of life experience and imagination. We stay at home moms don’t just sit at home with our kids, but how would people like O’Neill and Rosen know that? They never pay attention to women like us unless they are dismissing us.

When I think back on the vile sexist attacks on women and Moms like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Michelle Malkin, and many other conservative women in the new media, I noticed that women like O’Neill and Rosen never came to their defense. So, this is really not about women to them. It’s only about their political agenda.

If there ever was a war on women it came from those who stick their noses up at women who choose, sometimes at great financial sacrifice, to stay home with their children. All of women in America who have raised kids, working or not working, know that we advance nothing for ourselves when we trash each other for our choices. No one knows each of our lives. Each woman does what she has to do. That’s what Moms do. We need to raise each other up, not tear each other down. And we should never listen to those who dismiss any of our life choices in choosing (or having) to work and raising children.

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