Ridiculous as it sounds, Republicans just don't seem to see women as equals

The fundamental problem with Republicans on women’s issues during this campaign season (and well before it, too) is that they just don’t seem to understand or respect women. Words like “cherish,” “protect,” “guide,” and “help” aren’t words of equality. They are words that often diminish, minimalize and marginalize . . . Simply put, many candidates just don’t see women as equals.

Why?

They’re dumb?

Actually, they are supposed to be a pretty bright bunch of people, but maybe their upbringing, education and adult environment tainted them somehow. Let’s be clear, I’m a "feminist," and believe very strongly that men and women are equals, should be equally paid, should be equally considered for jobs, should be permitted (without changing any qualifications) to work wherever they are able, and should be able to choose how to care for their bodies. 

And yet here we are, with politicians making derogatory remarks about women, trying to legislate how women are “handled” in the health care system and placing themselves between women and their doctors at nearly every turn. They want to kill Planned Parenthood, leaving millions of women without the screenings they need. (A patchwork of independent clinics will not fill the gap.)

That female Republican politicians seem on board with this is, to me, something akin to selling one's morality for a place at the dinner table. Why do they not speak up when such hateful remarks about women are made? They are silent. Shame on them.

Different opinions and views are good . . . but not this.

I just don’t get it, frankly.

Until men start treating, and believing, women are equal to them on multiple levels, and stop trying to push them off in a corner, we’ll never have true equal rights for all. It seems simple to me . . . Stop creating gender-based legislation . . . Start creating equality legislation, which means, among other things, supporting equal pay for equal work, stepping out of the doctor’s office and the bedroom, and making low-cost birth control more widely available. Stop treating women as second-class citizens.

It starts as kids. Unfortunately some men haven’t grown up.