The Independent Women’s Forum is disappointed that the National Organization for Women would engage in sexist attacks aimed at Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
The Independent Women’s Forum notes that one of the stated goals of the National Organization for Women (NOW) is to eradicate sexism. NOW president Kim Gandy even stated that they will “monitor the media and call them out for their sexism directed at Palin. A woman slurred, regardless of her party or stances, is a woman slurred.”
However, a NOW spokeswoman has reportedly engaged in sexism towards Palin when she stated that the Alaska governor is “more a conservative man than she is a woman on women’s issues. Very disappointing.”
Allison Kasic is the director of the Silberman Center for Collegiate Studies at the Independent Women’s Forum describes such comments as “silly…hurtful [and] needlessly divisive.”
“Because it shifts our focus away from the important things — you know, from talking about the issues and talking about which candidate is going to have better judgment and their experience and all those sorts of things,” remarks Kasic. “And it focuses it on nasty identity politics — and I don’t see anything positive coming out of those sorts of comments.”
Kasic says she would think that a lot of people in the feminist establishment would be excited about a woman running for vice president, even if they did disagree with her political stance.
When John McCain announced Governor Palin as his running mate, NOW released a statement slamming that choice as “a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters.” In that statement, Gandy accused McCain of not understanding that women supported Senator Clinton “not just because she was a woman, but because she was a champion on their issues” — something that Gandy claims Palin is not.