Define "Women's Issues"

KAG asks why women keep donating to the Democrats even if we're not getting much in return. It's a question first posed by this article on AlterNet, which notes that "women's issues" such as access to birth control or more federal funding for child care and domestic violence prevention, are not being discussed on the campaign trail.

I would argue that the main problem with this question is that it very narrowly defines what is a "women's issue". Yes, the ones mentioned in the article are women's issues--but so are Iraq, the economy, and health care. All of those affect women just as much as what is traditionally defined as a "women's issue." But saying that female voters should be primarily concerned with the traditional issues sells women woefully short. It's about as dumb an argument, IMHO, as saying that women should vote for Hillary because she's also a woman.

But to answer the question, I would argue that the reason you don't hear these issues being discussed as much is because there's no real need to. It's a given that both Obama and Clinton are going to be better on these issues than McCain. Both of them have stellar records on choice, and both have pledged to repeal the global gag rule. Both of them state in no uncertain terms that they support more funding to fight domestic violence, and that they will fight for pay equity. Unlike some of the other issues, there's no ambiguity on the part of either candidate here.

So it's not like women aren't getting "a return on their investment." They give to Obama and Clinton because both of them would represent a 180-degree reversal from the anti-woman policies of George W. Bush, both on traditional "women's issues" and the broader ones.