GOP female army to counter Democrats

Nia-Malika Henderson at the Washington Post writes about how the GOP wants to raise an army of Fembots to battle the Democrats’ “war on women” theme.  GOP seeks female army to counter Democrats. You can’t make this shit up:

Fresh off a week in which Democrats made it clear that a key part of their midterm message will be equal pay, Republicans are set to begin their own efforts to woo women to the polls, focusing on counties that went blue in 2012 and could tip the balance in November.

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Republicans have been dogged by criticism that their party is out of touch with women. In a CNN poll in February, 55 percent of respondents said that Republicans didn’t understand women, a figure that jumps to 64 percent among women older than 50, a group that traditionally has been more Republican.

One strategy is to have more women out front and carrying the GOP message, not only on the Senate and House floor but also block by block in neighborhoods across the country, which is the kind of grass-roots engagement that “14 in ’14” will try to build. [RNC Launches “14 in ’14” Women’s Initiative.]

Monday’s efforts come as Republicans have continued the effort to be more competitive in additional states, including “purple” ones such as Colorado, Michigan and New Hampshire. The RNC is targeting 25 mostly blue counties out of 300 in 10 states with congressional and gubernatorial races, in a mix of red, purple and traditionally blue states.

I’m guessing that this blast from the past, Ms. Moral Majority 1980, is not what this new GOP outreach to women had in mind. Schlafly: Widen The Pay Gap Because Well-paid Women Turn Off Potential Husbands :

Anti-feminist Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly argued this week that Washington should stop trying to make sure women receive equal pay for equal work because men were not interested in marrying wives who make as much as them.

“Another fact is the influence of hypergamy, which means that women typically choose a mate (husband or boyfriend) who earns more than she does,” Schlafly wrote in a Christianity Today op-ed that was flagged by Right Wing Watch. “Men don’t have the same preference for a higher-earning mate.”

“While women prefer to HAVE a higher-earning partner, men generally prefer to BE the higher-earning partner in a relationship. This simple but profound difference between the sexes has powerful consequences for the so-called pay gap.”

Schlafly continued: “Suppose the pay gap between men and women were magically eliminated. If that happened, simple arithmetic suggests that half of women would be unable to find what they regard as a suitable mate.”

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“There are plenty of women who simply don’t want the same treatment as men,” she explained. “For example, most women don’t want to work the full week that men work. Men want full-time jobs, women want the ability to knock off and take shorter hours.”

“They like the gender gap,” Schlafly added. “They want to marry a man who earns more than she does.”

Nor is the current Republican woman governor of Oklahoma. Governor Bans Minimum Wage Increases And Paid Sick Leave Laws:

At a time when many states and cities are working passing minimum wage increases, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) has gone in the opposite direction and signed a law banning cities from passing higher wages. The bill also bans them from enacting paid sick days or vacation requirements.

[This disproportionately impacts women.]

The law will stymie the efforts of activists in Oklahoma City, where a labor federation has led the push on a petition to raise the city’s minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. The state’s current minimum has been set at the federal level of $7.25. In 2012, 64,000 workers in the state earned $7.25 an hour or less, making up 7.2 percent of all hourly workers, a larger share than the 4.7 percent figure for the country as a whole.

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Nearly 90 percent of workers who would be impacted by an increase in the wage are older than 20, while the average age is 35. More than a quarter have children to support. More than half work full time, and 44 percent have at least some college education, while half a million minimum wage workers are college graduates.

Meanwhile, experts have analyzed state minimum wage increases over two decades and found that even at times of high unemployment, there is no clear evidence that the hikes affected job creation. Five other studies have come to the same conclusion. The same has held true for the city of San Francisco, where employment grew by more than 5 percent after it passed a higher minimum wage while nearby counties experienced declines.

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The ban on paid sick days is also not new. While seven American cities and one state have passed paid sick leave requirements, ten states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin — have banned local efforts, with seven of those passing over the last year, and many other states have considered similar bills. Yet there is no evidence to support the idea that these requirements hurt businesses or job growth.

How’s that GOP rebranding working out for ya? New and improved packaging, same shitty product.