Joe Biden in Grinnell, IA—September 18th. Photo by Christopher Dilts for Obama for America (username ‘Barack Obama’) via Flickr.

It appears that 2012 is the Year of the Women.

From Ann Romney’s, “I love you, women!” to the Obama campaign’s, “The Life of Julia,” both candidates have passionately argued that they would best represent women’s interests. The substantial contribution the women’s vote made to Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 ensured their status as a key voting bloc in this election. While Obama had lost the men’s vote by 1% to John McCain, he won the women’s vote by 13%. Women matter more in a sheer numbers game as well; ten million more women than men voted in the 2008 elections.

It is therefore cause of great concern for Obama, and relief for Mitt Romney, that recent AP polling shows that the candidates are tied for the women’s vote. Just a month earlier, Obama had led Romney by 16%.

Frenetic media coverage has tried to analyse what all of this means. Did you know that women apparently care about things like jobs? Wait, it gets worse. A Fox News anchor claimed women voted for Romney in the Republican primaries because of his good looks, while a CNN contributor argued that women vote based on their hormone levels.

It’s shameful that this even needs to be said, but it seems that many have missed the memo:

Women are not a monolithic group, and they do not comprise a single constituency. Like men, they have varying interests and political views.

For one, there is stark disagreement on what even qualify as ‘women’s issues.’ Obama has focused on women’s reproductive health care, while Romney has steered clear of it, despite the GOP’s explicit stance on abortion.

“Liberal women and ‘the left’ do not have the right to solely define the content of ‘women’s issues’ without asking Republican women about their concerns,” said Gina Maddox, the founder of Women for Romney 2012, a national grassroots women’s coalition.“Women supporting Mitt Romney are not obsessed with social issues like access to abortion, ‘free’ birth-control or government sponsored ‘free’ healthcare.”

She referred to a survey conducted by the National Federation of Republican Women, which found that Republican women prioritised the economy, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and federal spending above all else.

Romney has emphasised these issues in his campaign, saying that he shares women’s greatest concern — “making sure that women and their kids and other members of their family are able to have good jobs.”

Marilynn Wiley, a Wellesley College junior, agrees: “I don’t see how anyone, especially young women, can allow themselves to be distracted by their so-called ‘reproductive rights’ when the possibility of facing personal and societal debt and diminished economic opportunities upon graduation is far more real and significant.”

This stance may prove to be costly on election day. An October poll by USA Today/Gallup found that the issue most important to women in battleground states was abortion at 39%, followed by the economy at 19%. Health care came a close third at 18%.

It is not surprising, then, that at least $16.8 million has been spent on abortion-related advertising in 2012, more than two-third of it by the Obama campaign and its supporters. This is a sharp contrast from 2008, when virtually no presidential ads focused on the issue.

Sam Shusterman, a member of NARAL Pro-Choice America in Massachusetts said, “Everyone wants to see the economy improve and for jobs to grow and return to the United States. People also want access to health insurance, good schools, higher education, a fair workplace, and safe streets. President Obama has shown the American people that this is not an ‘either/or’ situation – we do both.”

Obama’s focus on women’s reproductive healthcare results from the unprecedented number of 2044 provisions restricting access to abortion and contraception introduced by Republicans across state legislatures in 2011-2012. Perceiving these measures as an attack on women’s autonomy, about one third of the women polled by the Kaiser Family Foundation in May felt that the GOP had launched a ‘war on women.’

“A woman’s decision to get an abortion is entirely a personal one…[government leaders] just don’t have the right to dictate how women handle their own bodies,” said Rebecca Seidel, a sophomore at Wesleyan University.

Republicans have argued that the real war on women was being waged by Democrats on the economic front.

“There is a war on women, and it’s being perpetrated by Barack Obama. 5 million women are unemployed today because of Obama’s policies. 25.7 million women live in poverty, more than ever before in our nation’s history,” said Ms. Maddox.

However, the barrage of controversial comments from Republicans about rape certainly haven’t helped — so frequent that The Daily Show introduced a new segment: “Republican Candidate Said What About Rape Now?” It began in August, when Todd Akin, running for Senate in Missouri, asserted that “women do not get pregnant from legitimate rape.” These remarks were widely condemned by political leaders, including Romney, who urged Akin to drop out of the race.

The comments continued despite the stern response. Some politicians launched into disturbingly detailed accounts of what would qualify as ‘real’ rape; Wisconsin state representative Roger Rivard even claimed that “some women rape easy.” Most recently, Richard Mourdock, a Senate candidate in Indiana, stated, “I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

“The comments were a wake up call to women who were not taking the Republican party’s archaic and antagonistic platform on women’s health issues seriously,” said Ms. Schusterman. “Romney and Ryan had no political choice but to distance themselves from those comments, but I think most women in America who heard them clearly know that they are not on the side of science or us.”

Akin’s comments brought attention to the Sanctity of Life Act, a personhood bill that he had cosponsored with Paul Ryan. A Rasmussen poll taken immediately after the controversy found that Romney’s original lead over Obama in Missouri had disappeared.

Since Romney has regained his lead since then, it appears the outrage did not last long. For many Republicans, the extensive media coverage was just proof of its liberal bias.

“Sometimes, politicians say stupid things. If Joe Biden says it, the media downplays it and gives a little laugh. If a Republican says it, the media turns an anthill into the Alps,” Ms. Maddox said. “My response; who cares? We support Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and they have a demonstrated, stellar history of treating all women respectfully as equals and nothing less.”

Whether journalists were biased in their coverage of the rape remarks is debatable; Biden’s “chains” comment also received a lot of airtime. What is problematic, however, is the media’s oversimplification of women’s political views. To say that women care about jobs without detailing their thoughts on how those jobs should be created does a disservice to their intelligence. Women have policy agendas and ideas of their own; they are not damsels in economic distress, waiting for a charming President to save them.

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Politics: US Election