As a woman voting in this election, I know that I can't handle important topics like foreign policy and the economy. Women can only understand issues like health care and reproductive rights. After all, we only vote on women's issues and the men vote on all the other issues right?
Wait. No.
A new headline recently came out from "Time Magazine" about the next debate which read "The next debate must address Women's Issues". I guess the topics discussed in the last debate must not have been relevant to women. Topics like trade deals, jobs, law and order, and cyber security, which are all issues women can care about as well. I know for a fact women can care about these issues, because these are the issues which decided my vote. I watched the first debate and Vice Presidential debate, and despite the fact the media said there was very little discussion of "women's issues" I somehow managed to watch the whole thing and even understand it. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying we can't care about equal pay or sexual assault, but we are not limited to those issues. I'm choosing my candidate based on all the issues, not just the issues the media thinks I should care about.
Have you ever heard the term "men's issues? No, because I guess men can handle all the issues.
The idea that there is such a thing as a "women's issue" in politics is absurd. All issues are women's issues. Believe it or not, women did not fight for the right to vote just so we could be told which issues are most important to us. If someone were to walk up to me and ask what my top issues are this election season it wouldn't be these so-called women's issues, it would be energy security, the economy, or foreign policy. Stop telling me I can only care about a handful of issues because of my gender. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard the term "women's issues" during this election season, then I would almost be as rich as the two presidential candidates.
