In a new post at The College Conservative, Elizabeth Marcello examines what it means to be a young conservative woman.

The Real “War on Women”

My entire life, others have tried to convince me what a real woman is. At my all-girls high school, much of the curriculum focused on only what the women did in history and why men have failed us. I always found it hard to adopt this anti-men opinion when I have a father whom I admire, a brother who makes me laugh, and male friends and mentors who have helped me grow up and mature.

During my first semester at college, feminists on campus attempted to convince me of the “war on women” that Republicans are perpetuating. I am told that, apparently, “Republicans take away your rights” and “Women naturally are more inclined to the Democratic Party”. Are feminists not the very people who scorn the assumptions made about women? Why should anyone assume that females instinctively vote liberal?

The feminist rhetoric supported by organizations like the ACLU is hypocritical, if you ask me, because it generalizes women as victims in today’s society. Someone with opposing political views threatens the liberal agenda so much that they must brand the disagreement as a war. What amuses me most is when I am engaged in political debate and my peers tell me about this war on women going on. Nothing pleases me more than seeing the bewilderment on their faces when I reply with the following:

Am I not a woman? I am a woman, and I do not believe in this “war on women”. I am a female, and I am Republican. Republicans are not conducting a war. The real war on women lies in the threat against my second amendment rights. The real war on women lies in the millions of female infants aborted annually, and the apparent gender selective abortions in not only China but the United States as well. The real war on women stems from those who try and tell me what I should believe and whom I should vote for because I am a woman.