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Reagan’s “Gender Gap” Strategy and the Limitations of Free-Market Feminism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2012

Marisa Chappell
Marisa Chappell*
Affiliation:
Oregon State University
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Journal of Policy History , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 115 - 134
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Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

NOTES

1. I will use the term “gender gap” without quotation marks throughout the article. While the term can connote a variety of political phenomena, for the purposes of this article it means a statistically significant difference between all men and all women in support for a candidate or elected official, a political party, or a political position. In the early 1980s, that gap generally meant that fewer women than men supported Reagan, the Republican Party, and Republican public policy positions.

2. Lee Atwater to James A. Baker III, 23 November 1982, Elizabeth Dole File, box 6393, folder “Women: Gender Gap,” Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California (hereafter Reagan Library); “Post-Election Assessment,” n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, box 6393, folder “Women: Gender Gap,” Reagan Library, 1–2. On the gender gap’s impact on the midterm elections, see, e.g., Weisman, Steven R., “President Seeks to Gain Support from Minorities,” New York Times, 16 January 1983Google Scholar; “Women’s Strategy: A Two-Year Plan,” n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, box 6411, folder “Women’s Strategy 7–11/82,” 1; “52% Solution: Track I,” n.d., William Barr File, OA9095, folder “Women’s Issues,” 3; Office of Policy Development, “Gender Gap,” 19 November 1982, Elizabeth Dole File, box 393, folder “Women: Gender Gap,” 1. On trial presidential heats, see “Post-Election Assessment,” n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, box 6393, folder “Women: Gender Gap,” 5; Jones, Charles O., “Renominating Ronald Reagan: The Compleat Politician at Work,” in The American Elections of 1984, ed. Ranney, Austin (Washington, D.C., and Durham, 1985), 77.Google Scholar

3. Bella Abzug with Kelber, Kim, Gender Gap: Bella Abzug’s Guide to Political Power for American Women (Boston, 1984), 216, 131.Google Scholar

4. Clymer, Adam, “Male-Female Split on Politics Found Decisive in Some Polls,” New York Times, 27 October 1982 (reprint)Google Scholar, William Barr File, OA9095, folder “Women’s Issues”; Perlez, Jane, “Women, Power, and Politics,” New York Times, 24 June 1984.Google Scholar

5. “Post-Election Assessment,” 3, 1; “52% Solution: Track I,” 3; “Post-Election Assessment,” 1.

6. For example, Marjorie Spruill argues that after 1977, “there were now two clearly developed sets of ideas about what was best for American women.” Spruill, Marjorie, “Gender and America’s Right Turn,” in Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s, ed. Schulman, Bruce J and Zelizer, Julian E. (Cambridge, Mass., 2008), 86.Google Scholar

7. Eisenstein, Zillah, “Antifeminism in the Politics and Election of 1980,” Feminist Studies 7, no. 2 (Summer 1981): 188, 194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Rymph, Catherine E., Republican Women: Feminism and Conservatism from Suffrage to the Rise of the New Right (Chapel Hill, 2006).Google Scholar

9. Lassiter, Matthew D., The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South (Princeton, 2006)Google Scholar; MacLean, Nancy, Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace (Cambridge, Mass., 2006).Google ScholarPubMed

10. “Women’s Strategy Summary,” n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, box 6411, folder “Women’s Strategy 7–11/82,” 5.

11. Roberts, Steven V., “Surveys on Women’s Reaction Worry White House,” New York Times, 1 September 1982Google Scholar; Carole Bucy, “The Reagan Administration and Women: The ERA, Title IX, and the Role of the Federal Government,” paper presented at Conference on the Reagan Presidency, University of California Santa Barbara, March 2002, 3; Elizabeth Hanford Dole to President, 13 November 1982, and Ronald H. Hinckley to Elizabeth Dole, 5 November 1982, both in Elizabeth Dole File, box 6393, folder “Women: Gender Gap”; “Women’s Strategy Briefing: Outline,” n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, OA6409, folder “Women: CCW, 1982,” 2.

12. “Two-Year Gender Gap Strategy,” 17 November 1982, William Barr File, OA9095, folder “Women’s Issues: Gender Gap,” 2; “Women’s Strategy: A Two-Year Plan,” 4.

13. Frankovic, Kathleen A., “Sex and Politics: New Alignments, Old Issues,” PS 15, no. 3 (Summer 1982): 441, 446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. “Propositions and Conclusions Regarding the Gender Gap,” 4 ; “Two-Year Gender Gap Strategy,” 2.

15. “52% Solution: Track I,” 5, 21–22; “Post-Election Assessment,” 7, 12–13; “Two-Year Gender Gap Strategy,” 2.

16. “Two-Year Gender Gap Strategy,” 2; “Women’s Strategy Briefing: Outline,” 2.

17. “Post-Election Assessment,” 5–6, 7, 14, 16; “52% Solution: Track I,” 27; Emily H. Rock to Edwin L. Harper, 26 July 1982, William Barr File, OA9095, folder “Women’s Issues”; “Two-Year Gender Gap Strategy,” 4.

18. Rymph, Republican Women, 222–29; “Women’s Strategy: A Two-Year Plan,” 3–4 ; “Two-Year Gender Gap Strategy,” 4.

19. “52% Solution: Track I,” 19.

20. “Two-Year Gender Gap Strategy,” 4; Pear, Robert, “Reagan Chooses Ex-Representative Heckler to Be the New Secretary of Health,” New York Times, 13 January 1983.Google Scholar

21. “Issue Update,” no. 7, 6–7.

22. Office of Policy Development, “Gender Gap,” 1.

23. Dole, Elizabeth Hanford, “The Real Gender Gap,” Christian Science Monitor, 29 October 1982 (reprint)Google Scholar, Elizabeth Dole File, box 6393, folder “Women: Gender Gap.”

24. “Post-Election Assessment,” 7.

25. Quoted in Abzug, Gender Politics, 87.

26. “Post-Election Assessment,” 14; “52% Solution: Track I,” 2, 20.

27. Rock to Harper.

28. Harrison, Cynthia, “Politics and Law,” Women’s Annual 1983, 146–47.Google Scholar

29. “52% Solution: Track I”; “Women’s Strategy: A Two-Year Plan,” 2 ; “Propositions and Conclusions Regarding the Gender Gap,” n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, box 6393, folder “Women: Gender Gap,” 11.

30. “Women’s Strategy Briefing Outline,” n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, OA6409, folder “Women: CCW, 1982,” 1; “Women’s Strategy: A Two-Year Plan,” 2; “Dick Wirthlin Presentation,” n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, box 6393, folder “Women: Gender Gap,” 3–4; Ronald Hinckley to Elizabeth Dole, 5 November 1982, Elizabeth Dole File, box 6393, folder “Women: Gender Gap,” 2; Dole to President, 13 November 1982; “52% Solution: Track I,” 1–2.

31. “Women’s Strategy Summary,” n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, box 6411, folder “Women’s Strategy 7–11/82,” 1.

32. “Women’s Strategy Briefing: Outline,” 2.

33. Dole, “The Real Gender Gap.”

34. “Two-Year Gender Gap Strategy,” 1.

35. Emily Rock to Roger B. Porter, 6 December 1982, Elizabeth Dole File, OA6409, folder “Women: Coordinating Council on Women, 1982,” 1.

36. Chappell, Marisa, The War on Welfare: Family, Poverty, and Politics in Modern America (Philadelphia, 2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37. “52% Solution: Track I,” 3.

38. “Post-Election Assessment,” 9–10.

39. Abzug, Gender Gap, 130.

40. “Post Election Assessment,” 9; Office of Policy Development, “Gender Gap,” 1; Velma Montoya to Edwin L. Harper, 2 August 1982, William Barr File, OA9095, folder “Women’s Issues,” 2; “52% Solution: Track I,” 27.

41. “Propositions and Conclusions Regarding the Gender Gap,” 6–7, 10; Lenora Cole-Alexander to Mel Bradley, n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, box 6471, folder “Women’s Strategy, January–June 1982,” 3–4.

42. Bobbi Felder to President, 2.

43. “Propositions and Conclusions Regarding the Gender Gap,” 5, 11.

44. “Two-Year Gender Gap Strategy,” 2–3.

45. Ibid.

46. Ibid., 2; “Post-Election Assessment,” 10; Witt, Evans, “What Republicans Have Learned About Women,” Public Opinion, October–November 1985 (reprint)Google Scholar, Linda Arey File, Oa15056, folder “Women,” 49.

47. “Women’s Strategy: A Two-Year Plan,” n.d., 4; “Post-Election Assessment,” 10.

48. White House Office of Policy Information, “Issue Update,” no. 7, 1.

49. Barbara Honegger to Martin Anderson, 28 April 1981, Martin Anderson File, CFOA91, folder “Women’s Rights,” 1–3; Rock to Harper, 26 July 1982.

50. Cole-Alexander to Bradley, 2.

51. “52% Solution: Track I,” 19.

52. Felder to President, 1.

53. Harrison, “Politics and Law,” 151; Hopkins, William D., “Reagan Administration Efforts to Eliminate Sex Bias in Federal Law: A Critical Assessment,” Journal of Law and Politics 3, no. 1 (1986): 71–72Google Scholar; Abzug, Gender Gap, 141–42; Jones, “Renominating Ronald Reagan,” 77; Cummings, Judith, “Friends Say Feminist Heroine Is Sincere If Eccentric,” New York Times, 30 August 1983Google Scholar; Hopkins, “Reagan Administration Efforts to Eliminate Sex Bias in Federal Law,” 73.

54. Hopkins, “Reagan Administration Efforts to Eliminate Sex Bias in Federal Law,” 73.

55. Harrison, “Politics and Law,” 152.

56. Wendy Borchardt to Ed Harper, 21 July 1982, William Barr File, OA9095, folder “Women’s Issues,” 3; Velma Montoya to Ed Harper, 23 July 1982, William Barr File, OA9095, folder “Women’s Issues,” 1. The OFCCP issued new, more lenient affirmative-action rules in March 1983, exempting many firms from filing affirmative-action plans and narrowing back pay for violations to individuals rather than classes of victims. Uproar prevented the implementation of these new regulations. Reagan had also shaken up the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to replace supporters of affirmative action with opponents. The administration also supported the plaintiffs’ narrow interpretation of Title IX in the Grove City case. Harrison, “Politics and Law,” 149–51, 153; Bucy, “The Reagan Administration and Women,” 9–17.

57. Cole-Alexander to Bradley, 2, 4.

58. Montoya to Harper, 3.

59. “52% Solution: Track I,” 8 ; “Two-Year Gender Gap Strategy,” 7.

60. “Key Issues,” n.d., Michael Uhlmann File, OA9442, folder “Women’s Issues: 1/18/83 Meeting of the Women’s Coordinating Council,” 3.

61. “52% Solution,” 7.

62. Chavez, Linda, “Pay Equity Is Unfair to Women,” Fortune, 4 March 1985 (reprint)Google Scholar, Linda Arey File, OA15026, folder “Eagle Forum (Phyllis Schlafly)(1).”

63. Quoted in Dugger, On Reagan, 229.

64. Michael M. Uhlmann to Edwin L. Harper, 17 January 1983, William Barr File, OA9095, folder “Women’s Issues.”

65. Uhlmann to Harper, 17 January 1983; “52% Solution,” 8; “Key Issues,” 3.

66. Emily H. Rock to Roger B. Porter, 6 December 1982, Elizabeth Dole File, OA6409, folder “Women: Coordinating Council on Women, 1982,” 2; “52% Solution,” 4, 11, 12; Montoya to Harper, 2; ; “Fact Sheet,” n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, box 6393, folder “Women: Gender Gap,” 2; Dole, “The Real Gender Gap.”

67. “Two-Year Gender Gap Strategy,” 1; “Suggested Talking Points for Meeting with The Eagle Forum Leadership Conference,” n.d., Linda Arey File, OA15026, folder “Eagle Forum (Phyllis Schlafly)(1),” 2; White House Office of Policy Information, “Issue Update,” no. 17, 2–3; “Tax Reform and Other Economic Initiatives,” Michael Uhlmann File, OA9422, folder “Women’s Issues: 1/18/83 Meeting of the Women’s Coordinating Council”; White House Office of Policy Information, “Issue Update,” no. 7, 2.

68. “Executive Summary,” n.d., Michael Uhlmann File, OA9442, folder “Women’s Issues: 1/18/83 Meeting of the Women’s Coordinating Council,” 1.

69. “Issue Update,” no. 7, 1.

70. White House Office of Policy Information, “Issue Update,” no. 7, 3; “Fact Sheet,” n.d., Elizabeth Dole File, box 6393, folder “Women: Gender Gap,” 1–2.

71. Kahn, Alfred J. and Kamerman, Sheila B., Child Care: Facing the Hard Choices (Dover, Mass., 1987), 20–23Google Scholar, 100. Overall, child-care funding increased under Reagan, but this increase benefited middle- and upper-income families predominantly. Tax benefits for child care more than doubled from 1980 to 1986, while direct federal expenditures for child care declined by over 14 percent in the same period. Kahn and Kamerman, Child Care, 104; Klein, Abbie Gordon, The Debate Over Child Care, 1969–1990: A Sociohistorical Analysis (Albany, N.Y., 1992), 40Google Scholar; Harrison, “Politics and Law,” 154. For a broader discussion of child care, see Michel, Sonya, Children’s Interests/Mothers’ Rights: The Shaping of America’s Child Care Policy (New Haven, 1999).Google Scholar

72. Office of Policy Development Staffing Memorandum, “The Feminization of Poverty,” n.d., William Barr File, OA9095, folder “Women’s Issues,” 2–3; White House Office of Policy Information, “Issue Update,” no. 7, 2.

73. Perlez, “Women, Power, and Politics”; Weisman, Steven R., “Facing the ‘Gender Gap’ with Conflicting Advice,” New York Times, 16 August 1983.Google Scholar

74. Chavez, “Pay Equity Is Unfair to Women.”

75. An exception is the successful override of Reagan’s veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988.

76. Milligan, Susan, “GOP Women a Rising Force in the Party,” Boston Globe, 13 June 2010Google Scholar, http://www.boston.com/.

77. “Our Mission,” Independent Women’s Forum (accessed 5 February 2011), http://www.iwf.org/about/.

78. “Free Market Feminism,” http://freemarketfeminism.com/about/ (accessed 5 February 2011); Bernard, Michelle D., “Why ‘Feminism’ Should be Erased from the American Lexicon.” U.S. News & World Report online, 15 June 2010Google Scholar, http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2010/06/15/why-feminism-should-be-erased-from-the-american-lexicon?PageNr=2.

79. The gender gap has continued to be a factor in national elections. See, for example, Center for American Women and Politics, “Gender Gap Evident in the 2008 Election: Women, Unlike Men, Show Clear Preference for Obama over McCain,” 5 November 2008Google Scholar; Center for American Women and Politics, “Gender Gap Widespread in 2010 Elections: Women Less Likely than Men to Support Republican Candidates,” 4 November 2010.Google Scholar