By: Michaele Ferguson
Taking seriously the 鈥淲 Stands for Women鈥� rhetoric of the 2004 Bush鈥揅heney campaign, the contributors to this collection investigate聽how聽鈥淲鈥� 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.