In a new video released Tuesday, Republican Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land of Michigan says she's not waging a war on women.
Really.
That might surprise those who heard what the conservative politician said about equal pay while she was still Michigan's Secretary of State. The clip showed Land explaining to an audience why women aren’t actually interested in fighting for equal pay.
"Well, we all like to be paid more and that's great, but the reality is that women have a different lifestyle," Land said in the video, taken from a 2010 speech. "... And they're more interested in flexibility in a job than pay."
Land's words went viral. Even President Barack Obama referenced her comments in a speech he gave at a Democratic fundraiser in Houston April 9.
“Very rarely do you meet people who make the choice to be paid less for doing the same job,” Obama said.
Land is currently running a hotly-contested campaign against Rep. Gary Peters for Michigan's vacant Senate seat. Her new video, titled, "Really?" mocks the charges that she's waging a war on women.
"Really?" she asks the camera. "Think about that for a moment."
"I'm Terri Lynn Land, and I approve this message," she adds, "because as a woman, I might know a little bit more about women than Gary Peters."
Since Land is a woman, the video surmises, she couldn't possibly be accused of not supporting issues like equal pay for other women.
But the GOP is already home to quite a few women who don't believe equal pay or equal rights for women are causes worth their time or political energy. Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly opposes the Equal Rights Amendment and believes the best way to empower women is to improve pay "for the men in their lives." Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) says that women just "don't want" equal pay laws. When Senate Republicans blocked a vote earlier this month to debate the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would make employers more responsible for pay discrimination against women, Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) explained that the bill was actually "condescending" to women. Four female Republican senators, in fact, voted with their male party members to block an open debate on a law designed to make pay more equal in the U.S. All the while, women still make 74 cents for every dollar earned by a man in Michigan, where Land is trying to win an election.
To sum it up: if Terri Lynn Land didn't happen to believe in fighting for equal pay, she'd be in good company among the women of the GOP.
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