Empowered women in the religious right

During the last election cycle, we heard a lot of talk about the “war on women.” Often, it didn't feel like a hyperbole. Democrats would look at Republican women, shake their heads, and say, “How could they possibly be a part of a political movement where they are so disempowered?”

I was shocked and saddened by much of the Republican rhetoric when it came to women's issues. Thanks to the Religious Right agenda, our national dialogue took great strides backwards in the arenas of gender equality. Much of their speech centered on some serious misinformation about some basic biological functions (highlights being that a legitimate rape does not cause pregnancy, a rape is something God intends to happen, and the pill is the same thing as an abortion).

It would be easy for those of us who lean to the Left of the political spectrum to dismiss the Right by saying that they are waging a war on women, but that would deny the whole picture. What about Sarah Palin? What about Michelle Bachmann? And what about the other Grizzly Mamas who are being plucked, groomed and prepared as we speak?