[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H5760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  WHAT GENDER GAP? LIBERAL MEDIA SPIN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Stearns] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman from New 
Jersey [Mr. Pallone], the former Governor of Colorado has been speaking 
over the weekend to the Perot party. He indicated he supported 
President Clinton in 1992 but he can no longer support President 
Clinton because the Democrats and the President are demagoging the 
issue on Medicare. There are indeed no cuts. In fact, the amount of 
money that is going to Medicare is going up every year; it is going up 
almost 7.3 percent.
  That being said, Mr. Speaker, I am here to talk about the gender gap 
and how women identify with this as a political issue. Now this gender 
gap is touted by the National Organization of Women as being in their 
favor. It is mentioned in the Presidential election that one candidate 
has a gender gap problem among voters. What does this all really mean?
  Well, Concerned Women for America recently hired the Wirthlin Group 
to conduct a survey, which directly challenges the stereotypical view 
of the gender gap drawing women to the liberal position on 
controversial social issues.
  Its conducted survey found when asking their party affiliation, it 
did show 40 percent of the women out of this 1,000 people that they 
asked, 40 percent of the women identified themselves as Democrat, 29 
percent as Republican and 25 percent as Independent. The Democrats 
appear to have an advantage because the gender gap assumes women voters 
hold liberal positions on many issues. This assumption would appear to 
create a risk for candidates who take a conservative position on 
issues.
  In terms of political philosophy, however, 53 percent of all the 
women surveyed identified themselves as conservative; that is, women 
who identified themselves as Democrats were also identifying themselves 
as conservatives. This clearly shows party affiliation does not 
automatically translate into liberal ideology nor an outright rejection 
of conservatism.
  While the NOW organization is often accepted as the standard position 
for women voters, this organization actually emphasizes the gender gap 
by promoting the notion that women's issues such as abortion are the 
sole determinant for women voters. Well, this is not true. Only 36 
percent of the women surveyed have a formidable and favorable 
impression of NOW which portrays itself as a voice of American women.
  The survey also found out that only 1 percent of women listing 
abortion as their key issue of all the issues. When asked about 
abortion, 55 percent of women were pro-life, contrasting the views of 
NOW who are strongly pro-abortion. An even larger majority, 66 percent, 
favor adoption for tax credit, using tax credits. These findings indeed 
support a gender gap in favor of conservative voters.
  Women identified a decline in family values as the single most 
important issue. The NOW group proposes a generally liberal position 
with regard to family views, particularly dealing with homosexual 
rights and welfare reform. Welfare reform pits 66 percent of women 
against the views of liberals and the NOW group and in favor of reforms 
such as family caps.
  The Wirthlin study depicts the gender gap as really not a gap at all. 
Rather, there has been a lack of effective leadership to articulate the 
conservative position to women. On abortion, adoption, family values, 
welfare reform, and homosexuality rights women are just frankly 
conservative and frankly share the Republican view. The media has 
played a large part in discouraging conservative candidates by 
concluding conservative social policies alienate women voters. This 
poll shows just the opposite, and what we have, frankly, Mr. Speaker, 
is a liberal spin on the issue of the gender gap.
  Liberal politicians are already detecting this, though, They realize 
the conservative positions are the way to go and to promote ideas. 
Conservatives during the Reagan era were able to attract millions of 
registered Democrat voters largely on the strength of Reagan's social 
conservatism. As conservative leaders, we have the ability to attract 
these voters, including these so-called women's issues. The gender gap 
is removed.
  Mr. Speaker, the gender gap is a figment of the liberals and the 
media's imagination. For once the issues are clearly explained by the 
overwhelming majority of women today of all political persuasions 
accepting the conservative approach to abortion, adoption, family 
values, welfare reform, and homosexual rights. Today's women are 
basically conservative.

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