Powerful conservative women are leading in public service today, but unless they are being maligned by celebrities and the Left, they get little or no attention for how they are shaping our country for the better.
These women are not card-carrying members of the feminist sisterhood who still bemoan Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016. They aren’t trying to take down President Trump or thwart his administration’s policy agenda. They don’t ascribe to the Green New Deal or support ideas that rest on the complete government takeover of industry and the redistribution of your hard-earned money.
You won’t catch them parading around in vulgar pink hats or tweeting anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Perhaps that’s why they were left off Rolling Stone’s recent cover story of women shaping the future. These unicorns are so hard to find that Marie Claire could hardly find a couple of influential conservative woman in public life out of the 50 women they profiled to ask about the importance of voting in 2018.
Women’s media outlets rightly shine attention on the female pioneers in politics. However, they tend to only focus on liberal women. Conservative women notched campaign wins and breakthroughs for women in politics as well. Their stories deserve to be told too.
After a cliffhanger Senate contest in which she lost the open seat in Arizona, Martha McSally was appointed to replace Sen. John McCain. McSally is the first American female fighter pilot to fly in combat. Behind that honor was a painful secret that McSally kept hidden: allegedly being raped by a superior. She’s using her national platform to open a discussion about sexual abuse in the military.
Military spouses were on the mind of Kim Reynolds, Iowa’s newly elected first female governor, when she signed a law accelerating the process for them to use their professional licenses in the state. Transferring from state to state is challenging enough. However, when military spouses struggle to work because they lose their licenses in industries such as financial planning, healthcare, and real estate across state lines, it adds a greater financial burden on their families.
Licensure portability was signed into law a few states away by Gov. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., as well. Last November, Noem joined Reynolds as the first woman to be elected to the highest office in her state.
Noem is committed to fighting the methamphetamine epidemic in her state, which has led to stories of abuse and starvation of children due to strung-out parents. Part of her strategy is to crack down on the trafficking of meth into her state. That won’t happen without working with federal law enforcement to stop meth from one of its sources, our southern border.
According to Carla Provost, the first female chief of the Border Patrol, agency seizures of methamphetamine have increased 75 percent over the past few years. Provost doesn’t just fight drug trafficking, but human trafficking at the southern border.
California and Texas are the top two states with the highest reported cases of human trafficking. Florida ranks in third place, and that’s a designation that the state’s new Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez is working to change. Nunez is first the Latina to serve as Florida’s second-in-command, and she’s reportedly the highest-ranking Hispanic woman in the history of Florida politics.
Other firsts also include Lt. Gov. Jeneane Hampton, the first African-American to hold any statewide office in Kentucky history; Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, the first woman to represent her state in Congress; and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, the first Asian-American woman and the first Chinese-American in history to be appointed to the Cabinet.
These are just a handful of prominent conservative women in public life. We count 5 presidential Cabinet members, 8 U.S. senators, 16 U.S. representatives (including 2 delegates), 3 governors, 6 lieutenant governors, several federal agency heads, plus senior White House officials. There are countless other women who view public policy through the lens of individual freedom, limited government, and economic freedom.
As Women’s History Month comes to a close, let’s do what others in the media refuse to do: acknowledge the conservative women who are working hard to expand freedom and opportunity for men, women, and families.
From getting self-driving cars onto the road to tackling the crisis at our southern border, these women are driving forward common-sense policies that protect our nation and making history.