Maureen Dowd scores again today with a roundup of evidence that equal rights for women is far from an affirmatively decided question:
* There’s Republican poster boy Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, and his push to deprive women of protection against workplace discrimination.
* There’s the world Olympic community’s disregard of gender discrimination by Saudi Arabia.
* There’s Augusta National Club, still all-male and not giving the customary membership invite to major sponsor IBM’s new CEO because this CEO is a woman.
* There’s Pope Benedict, waging war on contraception, women in the priesthood and a church welcome for women who end unhappy marriages without proper church approval.
She could have gone on — the Republican war on abortion rights, family planning and basic health services provided by Planned Parenthood comes to mind.
Dowd notes the wide gender gap in current polling on political preferences and President Obama’s efforts to capitalize on it. She doesn’t mention the potential blowback from that strategy — blowback from angry men who like things just like they are. See Southern states and the angry older evangelicals (the Bible makes clear who’s the boss, don’t you know?) who form a dominant portion of the GOP/’bagger voting bloc.