We recently reported that the Network of Enlightened Women (NeW) was holding its 9th annual conference for conservative women on campus.

National Review Online contributor Alexa Moutevelis Coombs has this report from the event.

Can young conservative women find a place on college campuses? The Network of enlightened Women (NeW) sought an answer at its 9th annual National Conference in Washington, D.C. over the weekend. Dozens of young women showed up for a three-day gathering billed as “the only conference in DC focused on connecting young women with conservative ideas.”

NeW aims to foster the educational and leadership skills of conservative university women. NeW Founder and President Karin Agness has her work cut out for her: Women between the ages of 18 and 29 went a whopping 66 percent for President Barack Obama in 2012.

…This conference centered on balancing work and family life. These ladies took aim at the so-called War On Women, Sheryl Sandberg and Nell Scovell’s book Lean In, and Obama’s “Life of Julia” campaign.

To the panelists, most differences between men and women’s status in the workforce are not evidence of discrimination and a “War on Women,” but rather a sign of success as women can more freely choose how they live their lives.

“We will reach parity when we want it, when we choose it,” Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America, declared. She explained that many women deliberately choose a different path than men: “Women tend to off-ramp. When we have our children, we take several years off, or some women leave the workforce altogether, or they work part-time, as I did. They choose all different sorts of measures for themselves that work for their family.”

“There isn’t any social discrimination against women. The choices that women make are a function of what they want to do rather than what society [tells] them,” Diana Furchtgott-Roth, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research echoed. “One thing I want to tell you is: You can do whatever you want to do. If you want to work fulltime as an investment banker, you can make it. If you want to be a Supreme Court justice, you can make it. Or if you want to have a part-time job and be home with your children, you can do that, too.”

The panelists encouraged young women not to be held back by the implicit message of “War on Women” rhetoric, that the system is actively set against them and it is impossible to succeed without the government’s help.