University of Baltimore Law ScholarWorks@University of Baltimore School of Law All Faculty Scholarship Faculty Scholarship Winter 2014 Feminism, Democracy, and the "War on Women" Michele E. Gilman University of Baltimore School of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/all_fac Part of the Law and Gender Commons, and the Social Welfare Law Commons Recommended Citation Feminism, Democracy, and the "War on Women," 32 Law & Ineq. 1 (2014) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at ScholarWorks@University of Baltimore School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@University of Baltimore School of Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. 1 Feminism, Democracy, and the "War on Women" Michele Estrin Gilmant Introduction In the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election, the time is right to reflect on the relationship between feminism and democracy. Leading up to the election, social conservatives launched a range of aggressive attacks on women's rights. The Governor of Virginia announced his support for mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortions. l Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute" for testifying before Congress in support of contraception coverage.2 A United States congressman running for the Senate stated that women could not get pregnant from "legitimate rape.',s These were just a smattering of the volleys in the so-called War on Women; which became a central conflict of the 2012 campaign season.4 Combat t.