Carly Fiorina Is The Feminist Icon Conservative Women Deserve

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina has been making waves after a stellar performance in September’s GOP debate proved her a strong contender for the White House. Languishing in the polls as a result of her relative anonymity, Fiorina jumped to second place when she demonstrated her political prowess and willingness to take on controversial frontrunner Donald Trump. It was what happened exactly one week prior to the debate, however, that allowed Fiorina to demonstrate something else: the emergence of an intelligent, accomplished, and strong-minded feminist conservative women can identify with and be proud of.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on Fiorina’s appearance, exclaiming after a television camera panned in on her face,

“Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?! I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?“

Rather than expend energy responding with similar vitriol, Fiorina seized upon a gold-plated opportunity and ran with it. Just five days after Trump’s remarks, the CARLY for America YouTube channel uploaded an advertisement entitled “Faces”, which begins with Fiorina saying, “ladies, look at this face…”. The faces of women both young and old smile into the camera as Fiorina continues,

“… and look at all of your faces. The face of leadership. The party of women’s suffrage […] Ladies, note to Democrat party: we are not a special interest group; we are the majority of the nation“.

Delivering the knockout blow at the end, Fiorina confidently proclaims, “this is the face of a 61-year-old woman. I am proud of every year and every wrinkle”. It’s difficult, as a woman, to watch the video and not feel immediately inspired to go out and achieve my maximum potential.

The feminist message of the advertisement is undeniable, but the tone differs drastically from mainstream, progressive feminism. Rather than preach government reliance through legislation, Fiorina is encouraging women to empower themselves by taking charge of and being responsible for their own lives. She reiterates this message during the debate when asked which woman should be on the $10 bill, responding,

“… I wouldn’t change the $10 bill or the $20 bill. I think, honestly, it’s a gesture. I don’t think it helps to change our history. What I would think is that we ought to recognize that women are not a special interest group when women are the majority of this nation. We have half the potential of this nation, and this nation will be better off if every woman has the opportunity to live the life she chooses”.

In her closing remarks, Fiorina drives it home, concluding,

“I think what this nation can be and must be is symbolized by Lady Liberty and Lady Justice. Lady Liberty stands tall and strong […] She doesn’t shield her eyes from the realities of the world, but she faces outward into the world nevertheless, as we always must […] Lady Justice holds a sword by her side, because she is a fighter, a warrior for the values and the principles that have made this nation great […] it must be true, it can be true that in this country, in this century, it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter what you look like, it doesn’t matter how you start, it doesn’t matter your circumstances […] every American’s life must be filled with the possibilities that come from their God-given gifts“.

It’s unsurprising that Fiorina is a staunch believer in the notion that anyone, with enough hard work and determination, can achieve success in the United States.

Born September 6, 1954, to former Deputy Attorney General Joseph Tyree Sneed, III, and an abstract painter, Fiorina initially floated between various odd jobs before finding employment selling telephone services to federal agencies at AT&T. Though not expecting to be involved with the tech giant for long, Fiorina wound up working her way through the ranks, eventually securing the position of senior vice president; the first woman to do so. Five years later, she was heading North American operations, and in 1998, Fortune magazine named Fiorina “The Most Powerful Woman in American Business”. By 1999, she had become the first female CEO of Hewlett-Packard and the first woman to head a Fortune 20 company.

Fiorina has also engaged in philanthropic and non-profit work, once serving as Fund Chair of One Woman Initiative, a partnership of private and public sector agencies seeking to empower women in predominately Muslim countries. In 2013, she teamed up with Opportunity International to provide financial aid and education to approximately 2 million women living in poverty.

Now, in 2015, Fiorina is running for president. Her impressive resume lends credence to the image of a powerful, competent woman determined to achieve success regardless of what barriers stand in her way. It’s clear Fiorina embodies the values of conservative women, not only through her rhetoric and impressive business record, but through her politics. Her pro-life position, for example, is the antithesis of progressive feminism, and draws attention to the notion that women do not belong exclusively to a left-wing hive mind; nor do they have to.

Speaking last year to Breitbart News, Fiorina stated,

“We need to name and shame Democrats who play the ‘war on women’ game. Too often, Republicans have allowed the label to stick because of a misguided theory that by ignoring a charge it just goes away […] We need to organize strong conservative activists, especially women, and energize them to take action on behalf of our conservative principles. Women make up half this country. The UP Project is no longer going to allow Democrats to pretend we are single-issue voters“.

The UP, or “unlocking potential”, project is a super PAC created by Fiorina last year to,

“… engage women with new messages and new messengers by focusing on personal interactions with voters and going beyond the traditional methods of identifying, persuading and turning-out voters. Women are a vastly under-utilized resource and represent half of our nation. We cannot permit liberal orthodoxy to marginalize women or suppress their enthusiasm for our candidates“.

Fiorina truly defines conservative feminism through her unwillingness to pander to the puerile victim hood complex that has gripped progressive feminism for too long, recognizing that while women deserve a strong female voice, they are also responsible individuals who don’t require the comforting touch of government to support and defend them. She does not reduce women to a patronizing list of gender specific problems, understanding that issues ranging from the economy to foreign policy are just as important to female voters as they are male. She has lived a life of accomplishment in a field dominated by men, achieved through her personal investment of hard work and an unwillingness to give it anything less than her all.

There is no question Fiorina is a formidable candidate for President of the United States and the feminist icon conservative women deserve.

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