It seems safe to say that the Republican presidential candidates were not pitching real hard for women’s votes in Thursday night’s debate. Dana Liebelson sums it up:
The seven male GOP-ers in the prime-time debate did not discuss family leave, equal pay, child care, working moms, contraception, abortion, violence against women, LGBT protections, the treatment of female migrants, or education in any depth. Watching the event, a viewer might have gotten the impression that, unlike the candidates' proposals for combatting terrorism, these are not policies that affect Americans. But an international delegation of human rights experts recentlydetermined that women in the United States are "missing rights" compared to the rest of the world.
Of course women can be and are interested in issues like foreign policy and taxes as well, but being treated as if you don’t exist is not the most appealing thing. Then again, when Republicans do talk about women, it’s also not the most appealing thing, given the content of what they usually say. So maybe pretending that more than 50 percent of the U.S. population doesn’t exist isn’t the worst choice they could make.