Expect More 'War on Women' Theme From Liberals in 2016, Expert Predicts
With the expected increase in liberal females to prominent media positions, the "war on women" theme could be even more prominent during the 2016 presidential elections than it was in 2012, believes Kay Hymowitz, William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.
There is currently a "resurgent feminism" among young, college-educated, middle and upper class women, who are just now getting their start in journalism but will have more prominent positions by 2016, Hymowitz explained.
"You can see already, the ground is being prepared for a real women's election," she said.
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Hymowitz was speaking at a Friday symposium in Washington, D.C., hosted by The Family in America: A Journal of Public Policy, called "The 'War on Women:' Myth or Reality?" She has written extensively on issues related to culture, feminism, marriage and poverty.
The panel was moderated by Dr. Allan Carlson, president of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, and also featured Dr. Janice Crouse, senior fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute, Ross Douthat, a columnist for The New York Times, and Dr. Ryan MacPherson, chair of the History Department at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minn.
More women than men are graduating from journalism schools at the same time that there has been an explosion of media outlets on the Internet. These new media outlets are "starving for copy" so they can update their websites daily, Hymowitz explained, and are in need of young journalists who will work for little or no pay.
She believes these journalists are insular in their worldview.
"You have this kind of echo chamber because of changes in the Internet and the increase in the number of young women journalists; they are talking to each other about a lot of issues related to very young college-educated women. They are quite provincial," she said.
Since they must write frequently, they often tell personal stories in their writing or rely upon limited Google searches to find information confirming their biases. They understand little about, for instance, the increasing class divide associated with declines in marriage rates among the poor, a topic Hymowitz has written about.
"In so far as they do know about it, the only problem they presume is a lack of contraception and sex education. That is simply the only way they can frame those issues."
These young women journalists, Hymowitz added, typically live in Brooklyn (where she is from), they go to parties and network with other media people. From there, they might get invited to write an article for The New York Times, The New Yorker, or Jezebel.com, "a very popular, snarky women's blog."
"They are the bottom of the food chain now, but are beginning to move up and will have more and more power," Hymowitz predicted. "They will have a lot to say about the upcoming 2016 election."
