W Stands for Women: How the George W. Bush Presidency Shaped a New Politics of Gender
Taking seriously the 鈥淲 Stands for Women鈥 rhetoric of the 2004 Bush鈥揅heney campaign, the contributors to this collection investigate how 鈥淲鈥 stands for women. They argue that George W. Bush has hijacked feminist language toward decidedly antifeminist ends; his use of feminist rhetoric is deeply and problematically connected to a conservative gender ideology. While it is not surprising that conservative views about gender motivate Bush鈥檚 stance on so-called 鈥渨omen鈥檚 issues鈥 such as abortion, what is surprising鈥攁nd what this collection demonstrates鈥攊s that a conservative gender ideology also underlies a range of policies that do not appear explicitly related to gender, most notably foreign and domestic policies associated with the post-9/11 security state. Any assessment of the lasting consequences of the Bush presidency requires an understanding of the gender conservatism at its core.