Women’s Votes
* While Peg Yorkin may chair an organization with the word “feminist” in the title (the Feminist Majority), she hardly speaks for all of us who call ourselves feminists (letters, March 16). Yorkin writes, “No feminist . . . will vote for a presidential candidate such as Gov. Pete Wilson, who is unabashedly against affirmative action, which has helped women more than anyone else in our society.”
A quick look at November exit polls reveals that women’s votes composed a large part of Wilson’s victory. More recent surveys have shown that although women want equal opportunities to compete with men, a majority of women also support an end to government-sponsored affirmative action. After experiencing two decades of programs that were designed to eliminate segregation and prejudice and instead unintentionally furthered them, we would prefer to be judged on our own individual merits and accomplishments rather than the fact that we happen to be female.
Sorry, Ms. Yorkin: We feminists are not one monolithic group that walks in lock step behind you.
PAIGE GOLD
Republican Task Force Chair
National Women’s Political Caucus
of California, Los Angeles
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