Larger Gender Gap????

I remember the women's movement of the 60's and 70's and the struggle for equality, equal pay, and respect.  Unfortunately, just when we thought that it was safe out there, the Republican Party decides it is time to put women back--------back into the 18th century.  The Republicans appear to think that they should decide what happens in a woman's uterus, what she chooses for birth control, where she can go for medical treatment, etc., etc., etc.  I'd like to know why the predominately male, white, rich Republican Party thinks it should make decisions for all women????

Even in our local paper, we are seeing articles about women, their rights, and birth control.  In a recent editorial in the Dublin News, a writer, a woman, said the following:

....One political group, in an attempt to get votes, has created a new issue that the media has labeled the conservatives' "war on women."

.....Who we are as women didn't need to be revolutionized so we could become equal to men because we are already the compelling and stronger sex by just embracing our natural role. Without any knowledge of feminism, we felt powerful just being the sex that can influence men and society with our charming nature and spirituality.

Sadly, the war on woman is the one we created among our own sex, it is not political. This is one battleground that would benefit from a white flag of respect.

White flag?  Needless to say, this quiet little suburban weekly newspaper has seen a large response from readers about this column.  Here is part of one of my favorite comments: 

...I feel sad for women like Ms. Giddens who don't embrace or understand the courage of women who came before us, who fought for our right to vote, hold office, own property, obtain credit, receive higher education, and work for equal pay. She is deluded if she thinks her children or mine would be better off living under those conditions of prejudice and discrimination that I suffered under...

I don't know about the writer of the editorial, but I do know one thing that a majority of women know----- 

We are not going back to the days when we had no voice, no rights, no power. 
NO! NO! NO! 

Any candidate or political party that thinks that women can be collectively picked up and returned to another decade is very, very wrong. Any chairperson of a political party that compares women and their concerns to insects, is going to see that gender gap get bigger, and bigger, and bigger.