The 'mommy wars': Does Ann Romney 'work'?

“You can’t blame Republicans for wanting to change the subject,” said The Nation in an editorial. From the point of view of female voters, it’s been a disastrous couple of months for the GOP, as conservatives attacked contraception coverage in health plans, right-wing icon Rush Limbaugh engaged in the “slut-shaming of Sandra Fluke,” and Mitt Romney vowed to defund Planned Parenthood. Just as the Democratic narrative of a Republican “war on women” was taking root, said Jane Mayer in NewYorker.com, along came Hilary Rosen. A CNN pundit and longtime Democratic Party adviser, Rosen last week belittled Romney’s statement that he was getting advice on women’s economic issues from his wife. Mother-of-five Ann Romney, said Rosen, “has never worked a day in her life.” That was all it took. Just as when Hillary Clinton said she “could have just ‘stayed home and baked cookies’” in 1992, gleeful Republicans claimed that Rosen had let slip the Democrats’ contempt for women who choose homemaking over a career. Rosen quickly apologized, as President Obama and the Democrats scrambled to disown her, but it was too late: The “mommy wars” had been reignited.

Rosen meant exactly what she said, said John Guardiano in Spectator.org. Her condescending put-down of Ann Romney was “part and parcel of a long-standing effort by many on the Left to denigrate and demean women who choose not to work outside the home.” The rearing of children is “the most important job in the world,” said Suzanne Venker in NationalReview.com, whereas “the chronic absence of moms from the home is at the core of countless social ills.” But liberals scorn “the traditional family,” viewing it as a mortal threat to their vision of a gender-neutral utopia where kids are raised by nannies and day-care centers.

Rosen shouldn’t have used such “dismissive language,” said Ruth Marcus in WashingtonPost.com. As the mother of two herself, she should know only too well that “staying at home with the kids is the very definition of hard work.” But Rosen’s underlying point was correct. In a clumsy effort to woo female voters, Mitt Romney asserted that he relies on Ann to take the pulse of working women in this struggling economy. The Romneys are worth about $250 million and own several lavish homes, and Ann drives two Cadillac SUVs; she raised her five sons without ever having to worry about money. “You don’t have to be a combatant on either side of the mommy wars to recognize that Ann Romney’s privileged life experience is not typical.” Ann Romney fired back at Rosen, said Tara McGuinness in Politico.com, saying that “we need to respect choices that women make.” She’s right. But 73 percent of American moms now work, and what Mrs. Romney fails to understand is that for most American mothers, “the economic reality of their lives doesn’t leave a lot of ‘choices.’” We work because we have to.

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This whole debate is insulting to women, said Jena McGregor in WashingtonPost.com. All the hyperbole and finger-pointing makes it clear that both Democrats and Republicans still view women as a voting bloc of hormonal simpletons who “decide who they’re going to vote for based on what the pundits and the spokespeople say.” What are the candidates’ policies on child-care options, maternity leave, and equal-pay laws? Women deserve a substantive discussion of the issues that affect them, not this patronizing theater of phony “wars” and fake outrage. Yes, as Ann Romney and Michelle Obama both declared last week, every woman deserves respect. But you know what? “So does every voter.”