By Maggie Thurber | Special to Ohio Watchdog

DO IT! Women are more than their ?lady parts.? They are concerned about the economy and government regulations. And they can make a difference in politics.
For years, the women?s liberation movement, as it was originally called, has made great strides in fighting for ? and gaining ? equality for women.
I, and so many others like me, have benefited personally from the efforts to eliminate glass ceilings, open up occupations to both sexes and remove the stereotype that women belong only in the home.
As a result of changing perceptions as well as a changing world, women are free to choose whether to work outside the home or be a stay-at-home mom.?Women, especially younger ones, see no limits to what they can do or accomplish and expect that their choices will be respected by society and not questioned in terms of their value or worth.
But then the 2012 election came along.
Suddenly women were nothing more than political pawns interested only in fee contraception or abortion.
Ads ran constantly, it seemed, with women saying that Mitt Romney would return me to the 1950s.?Women in commercials told me how ?scary? Romney was to everything I valued.
It was as if the only thing women would be interested in was whether they could get someone else to pay for their birth control ? despite the fact that it is easily obtainable for about $4 a month at Walmart ? or if they?d continue to be able to kill their children while still in the womb.
What happened to the intelligent woman capable of running a multinational corporation??Surely she had to be interested in more than sex, right??Wouldn?t she be concerned about the economy and the impact of various government regulations?
What about the savvy single mom struggling to cover everything for her family??Wouldn?t she be worried about gas prices and inflation and how they affected her weekly budget??Was birth control really her main priority?
What about the hip college coeds??While birth control might be a concern, wouldn?t they also be worried about the job market and their ability to actually get one?
What about the grandmother who had lived through the 1950s and was now surviving on a fixed pension??Certainly birth control and abortion are her main issues.?Wouldn?t she be more worried about how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act diverted $716 billion out of Medicare?
After the decades of struggles and battles to attain equality, were we really nothing more than our ?lady parts? expected to vote in the best interests of our vagina rather than our heads?
Was I the only one feeling belittled and demeaned by such an advertising campaign??And what about the people who promoted it? Is this really what they thought about me and other women?
Apparently so.
I know there have been instances in the past when so-called feminists ignored degrading attacks on women in favor of a political position (Bill Clinton immediately comes to mind). The self-proclaimed champions of women?s issues and rights appeared to weather the hypocrisy.
But this campaign, they not only allowed the mockery, they embraced it and championed it ? and expected other women to do so as well.
I cannot help but think that history will look back on the 2012 election and note that this was when the feminist movement died.
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Source: http://watchdog.org/61785/thurber-the-day-the-feminist-movement-died/
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