WOMEN IN POLITICS

INTRODUCING INDIVIDUALIST FEMINISM TO THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY PLATFORM

Feminism is the radical notion that women should have rights and the subsequent fight in order for women to have them. Whether or not people want to believe it or not, women still experience sex based discrimination. I mean genuine cases of sex based discrimination, of when you’re not even considered a potential candidate for a position just because you have tits, proceeding to hire a man who is significantly less qualified, unreliable, and had just gotten out of jail for punching a woman at the bar the night before, over you. Not the liberal ‘words hurty’ nonsense which discriminates against nothing but their feelings.

When people talk about rejecting feminism, they essentially talk about rejecting women’s rights, and that equates to them talking about the rejection of my rights. The fact that in their ignorance they’ve equated neoliberalism with feminism in their minds bears no effect on how retarded, inconsiderate, and out of touch they are with the life experiences of those of us with lucky to have been born against our will, and to add insult to injury, as a woman, instead of the fucking ballsack that gives an individual the audacity and fragile ego which doesn’t permit for women to have more than 10 good years before regressing. Libertarianism is about individual rights. The frequent discussions occurring in libertarian party circles blaming feminism for the relations between sexes, the disintegration of a nuclear family unit, and the unfavorable behavior of women, which being generalized despite being the characteristic of only a small minority, and whatever else, are inherently misogynistic. It is fairly obvious that at least subconsciously, they correctly associate feminism with women, because their blame of feminism comes the extension with blaming women.

I would like to make this overly clear. I do not need men, or anyone for that matter, to fight my battles for me. Nor do I need or want to be party to some kind of bastardized creation of libertarian White Knights. Nor am I offended by the, what I consider to be, inferior ideological thought processes of those males. Sex and race based discrimination as a character trait is present in higher concentrations of those with authoritarian leaning personalities. However, I can see how their inability or refusal to be personable and relate to women and the general general public is hurting the expansion of libertarian ideas. I just want socially stunted bro individuals of the bro variety, and privileged females who do not support feminism because they have never dealt with discrimination themselves. Those individuals, who makeup the disproportionately male political party I am affiliated with, to wake the fuck up and acknowledge reality. The refusal to acknowledge sex based differences is one of the major problems in contemporary western society when it comes to interpersonal relations between sexes. Equality, which legally speaking, is only used to mean equal opportunity, should not equate to sameness, but people are so fucking accustomed to adopting external factors into their character traits indiscriminately instead of developing their character based on the carefully considered, weighted measurements of the benefits of incorporating those traits would have for self development, that by the time the under-classes reach a point where the government boot isn’t at their throat, society had already bastardized the simplest of concepts which had originally ensured their freedom from oppression.

WHAT DOES INDIVIDUALIST FEMINISM ENTAIL?

Individualist feminists attempt to change legal systems to eliminate sex and/or gender privileges and to ensure that individuals have equal rights, including an equal claim under the law to their own persons and property, regardless of their gender, sex, or sexual orientation. Individualist feminism encourages women to take full responsibility for their own lives and opposes any government interference into the choices adults make with their own bodies.

Individualist feminists do not believe equality is strictly a legal issue; however, they believe that equality under the law is the only proper standard for government. Government should not move to “equal the playing field" or correct historic discrimination by prioritizing the needs of women over men or awarding them special treatment, nor should it strive to intervene to create equality in personal relationships, private economic arrangements, entertainment and media representation, or the general sociocultural realm. Advancing equality in these realms must be achieved without state force, intervention, or coercion. This is a matter of principle as well as practicality, as state power will inevitably used against groups and individuals who are more marginalized. Increasing state power increases the power of the state to hurt women and girls in myriad ways.

**“Bondwomen”** differ from **”freewomen”** by a fundamental distinction: they are not autonomous individuals; **they do not have a will, spirit, or intent of their own.** ::There is nothing that establishes them as unique, independent individuals.:: “They are complements merely. By habit of thought, by form of activity, and largely by preference, *they round off the personality of some other individual, rather than cultivate their own.”*

Historically, **“bondwomen”** defines the status and working practice of women. Using the concepts of master and servant, ::Marsden argues that women as a category have demonstrated in the past little but the attributes of the “servant,” while the qualities of the “master,” such as imposing law, setting standards, establishing rights and duties, acquiring property, have been relegated to men.:: Women have been the *”followers, believers, the law-abiding, the moral, the conventionally admiring”* whose virtues are those of a subordinate class. Women have served as functionaries and servants. *They live by the “borrowed precepts” issued by men.* ::Societal hierarchies ensure that some men must be servants, but all women are servants and all the masters are men.:: What fundamentally characterizes women is their servile condition.

Marsden is not interested in detailing the history of the oppression of women, she wants to understand its modem manifestations and to provoke rebellion against it. In order to do so, she says it is important to acknowledge that ::women bear responsibility for both their oppression and their liberation.:: Oppression and liberation have both an internal and external component. Women will never be free of their bondage unless they understand how they have contributed to it. The reason why men have been historically successful in “crushing” women down is because women were “down in themselves – i.e., weaker in mind.” Those who are pushed to the lower rungs of the social hierarchy a re inferior, in part, because they believe themselves to be inferior.

::To change the status of women, women must change how they view themselves.:: “When change takes place in the thing itself- i.e., when it becomes equal or superior – by the nature of its own being it rises.”In modernity, the servile condition of women is manifest in their ” protected” status; they are ” protected” by men, culture, and the state. The protected status helps explain the contradictory and “stupefying influence of security and irresponsibility” which “soothes women into a willing acceptance” of their social status. Protection means that security is conferred on women, but they must relinquish their power to earn, think, and assert responsibility for their lives. Political movements and advocacy for women must be assessed from this perspective.

WOMEN MORE LIKELY TO BE DEMOCRATS, REGARDLESS OF AGE

https://news.gallup.com/poll/120839/women-likely-democrats-regardless-age.aspx

A recent Gallup analysis confirmed the existence of a fundamental gender gap in American political party identification today, although the exact nature of that gap has varied over recent years. The major distinction in political party identification today seems to revolve around the percentage of each gender who identify as Democrats versus independents; men and women have been similar in terms of identification with the Republican Party this year.

In the current analysis of 149,192 Gallup Poll Daily tracking interviews conducted in January through May of this year, 41% of women identify as Democrats, some nine points higher than the 32% of men who identify as Democrats. The 34% of men in this sample who are independents can be contrasted with the smaller 26% of women who are independents. There is little difference by gender in terms of identification as Republicans -- 28% of men are Republicans, compared to 25% of women.

Overall, the data confirm that men currently have a much more even distribution of party identification than do women. The range across the three partisan groups for men is just 6 points, from a low of 28% identifying as Republicans to a high of 34% identifying as independents. On the other hand, the range for women is a much larger 16 points, from 25% Republican to 41% Democratic.

The Age Factor

Previous Gallup research has shown significant variations in party identification across age groups in the American population. Baby boomers (aged 45-63) are more likely than average to identify as Democrats, as are younger Americans in Generation Y (aged 18-29), while Generation X (aged 30-44) as well as older Americans are somewhat more Republican in orientation. The new Gallup analysis, importantly, shows the persistence of a gender gap not only within each of these broad age groups, but at every age, from 18 to 85, even as the overall party identification patterns shift across the age spectrum.

The accompanying chart displays the "partisan gap" for men and for women at each age. The broad trends certainly document the fact that the Democratic over Republican advantage varies across age groups. Democrats have their greatest advantage among baby boomers and the very young, and are weakest, relatively speaking, among those in their late 30s and in their mid- to late 60s. The key point for the current analysis, however, is that these variations occur among both men and women. There is, as noted, a gender gap in this partisan orientation measure at every age point, from 18 to 85.

Three additional charts display the gender differences in the percentages identifying as Republicans, independents, and Democrats across all age groups. The gender gap is largest in terms of Democratic and independent identification, and smallest for the percentage identifying as Republicans, but for the most part, a gender gap exists for every age in terms for each of these three partisan groups.

Racial and Ethnic Groups

There are well-known and significant differences in the patterns of partisan identification across major racial and ethnic groups. Blacks and Asians are more Democratic in orientation than are whites (blacks, much more so). But within each of these three groups, women are more Democratic than men.

Overall, Hispanics (of any race) are more Democratic than non-Hispanics. But Hispanic women are more Democratic in orientation than Hispanic men, and non-Hispanic women are more Democratic than non-Hispanic men.

Marital Status

There are also significant differences in Democratic orientation within segments of Americans based on their marital status. In general, Americans who are living with a domestic partner, those who are separated but not divorced, and those who are single are more Democratic than others. Married Americans are the least likely to be Democrats. But, as was the case for racial and ethnic groups, the data show a gender gap within each of these groups. Single women are more Democratic than single men, married women are more Democratic than married men, divorced women are more Democratic than divorced men, and so forth.

Implications

Although the existence of a gender gap in American politics has been well established, the very large sample sizes available with Gallup Poll Daily tracking allow for a more-detailed-than-normal examination of the nature of gender differences. The remarkable finding is that women of all ages are more Democratic in orientation than are men of the same ages, and that women of all ages are also less likely than men of the same ages to be independent. (The differences by age in the percentage identifying as Republican are much smaller.)

This means that whatever forces are at work that determine party identification in America today -- socialization, cultural patterns, social position, social status, and life orientation -- are already in place by the time young men and women reach the age of 18. And, these same patterns seem to have affected or are currently affecting men and women in their 80s in a similar fashion. The fact that the gender gap persists not only across age groups, but within major racial, ethnic, and marital-status groups reinforces the conclusion that a gender difference in political orientation is a fundamental part of today's American political and social scene.

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Republicans Face Steep Uphill Climb Among Women, Men increasingly identifying as independents, drifting away from GOP

https://news.gallup.com/poll/118207/Republicans-Face-Steep-Uphill-Climb-Among-Women.aspx

Among women, Democrats maintain a solid double-digit advantage in party identification over Republicans, 41% to 27%. In contrast, men are equally divided in their party loyalty between Republicans (28%) and Democrats (30%), and are currently most likely to say they are politically independent (40%).

These results are based on aggregated data from Gallup Polls conducted in the first quarter of 2009.

The current results for women are typical of what Gallup has found over the past year, with roughly 4 in 10 identifying themselves as Democrats. The Democratic Party has held an advantage among women in Gallup polling throughout this decade, with support usually in the high 30% range. The current 41% female Democratic identification matches the high achieved several times since 2000.

At various times over the past decade, the plurality of male partisans have shifted between Republican and independent identification, with no more than 31% of men identifying as Democrats in any quarter. Since late 2006, however, the gap between the percentage of men identifying as independents and the percentage identifying as Republicans has grown, and independent men have outnumbered Republican men for the last two years running. Over this time, Republican identification among men has largely been on par with Democratic support, a clear negative sign for the GOP given the solid support the Democratic Party has among women.

Party Support Including Leaning Independents

Women's affinity for the Democratic Party looks even stronger when independents' partisan leanings are taken into account. By this measure of party identification, Democrats currently enjoy a 22-point advantage over Republicans, with 57% of women identifying as Democrats or saying they are independent but leaning Democratic, compared with 35% who identify with or lean to the Republican Party. This gap is one of the largest Gallup has measured in any quarter this decade.

Among men, the Democratic and Republican Parties have been more closely matched on this measure of party identification thorughout this decade. However, the trend is clear -- the advantage Republicans held for much of the 2000s disappeared in 2006, and Democrats have maintained at least a small edge since then. In the most recent quarter, 47% of men identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic, compared with 42% who identified as Republicans or leaned Republican.

Implications

The last three years have brought little in the way of good news for the Republican Party, including two decisive national election defeats. During this time, Democrats have expanded their advantage in party identification nationally and have solidified their support among women. Republicans' former advantage over Democrats in leaned party identification among men has disappeared, though the parties remain competitive.

If there is any silver lining for the Republican Party, it is that while men have become less likely to identify as Republicans, they have not necessarily moved in great numbers to the Democratic Party, but instead have shifted more toward an independent political orientation. That would seem to indicate at least a possibility that men who formerly identified as Republicans could someday return to the Republican fold.

ALIENATING WOMEN FROM THE LIBERTY MOVEMENTS HURTS THE PROGRESSION OF LIBERTARIAN IDEALS

“Studies have shown that more women than men engage in volunteer work, including political volunteer work. More women than men are engaged in the non-profit sector, and are particularly active in grassroots civil society organizations, as well as in non-governmental organizations operating at local and national levels. Moreover, women are more likely to remain with the same party even if the party is not successful in elections. For instance, in Georgia it was found that women party members were more likely than men to promote their party during election campaigns; were more willing to engage in less visible party promotion, such as door-to-door campaigning; and were more apt to remain members of the party, even if the party gains no seats in the parliament or loses its majority. Volunteer rates among women are particularly high among younger age groups, suggesting that young women active in their local communities and engaged in social issues represent a valuable resource for parties looking to improve their image and outreach among the younger generation.”

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“Another finding of this report is that women are more likely to invest a larger proportion of their household income than men in the education and health of their children. Similarly, a 2011 study found that if one dollar of development money is given to a woman, she is likely to spend 90 per cent of that money on her family and on her community. If one dollar of development money is given to a man, he is likely to spend only 30 to 40 per cent of that money on his family and on his community; the rest he will spend on himself. Figure 2.10 illustrates the proportion of funds allocated by men and women to their community and to themselves.”

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“Civil society organizations are another excellent sector from which to recruit potential new members, particularly women. Recent research indicates that women make up as much as 80 per cent of civil society organizations in the United States, and up to 68 per cent of these organizations in the United Kingdom. Civil society organization activists usually develop skills that are easily transferable to the political arena, including advocacy, lobbying, budget development, commu- nications and outreach skills.”