2011 is the beginning of the end of identity politics. According to end of the year findings by Rasmussen Reports, Republicans run even with Democrats among women.

In the coming year, the GOP is going to be faced with the interesting challenge of holding onto female voters without playing gender politics. Democrats lost the female vote this year by trying to court women through “women’s issues” like gender discrimination laws.

2011 is going to be the year in which lawmakers have to appeal to women through ideas, values and programs that speak to all Americans (i.e. the economy) rather than through pandering and legislative loot.

Republicans are armed with a new battalion of women lawmakers and leaders at both the national and state level who can reach out to women voters not through domestic violence or birth control policies, but on the principles of limited government, individual rights, constitutional freedom, and a vigorous economy.

Reversing – or at least slowing – the game of gender politics will be a defining feature of the Republican politics of 2011.