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NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. — One of President Trump’s senior female advisers took aim at feminism Thursday morning, saying the term had become tainted with left-wing implications and that she didn’t feel comfortable defining herself as a feminist.
Kellyanne Conway slammed modern feminism as exclusive and anti-conservative during an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference, arguing that she supported some of its basic tenets while saying the term had been so coopted by the left that she doesn’t use it.
“It’s difficult for me to call myself a feminist in the classic sense because it seems to be very anti-male and it certainly is very pro-abortion in this context and I’m neither anti-male or pro-abortion. So there’s an individual feminism, if you will, where you make your own choices,” she said to cheers from the conservative crowd. “I look at myself as a product of my choices, not a victim of my circumstances and that’s really what conservative feminism, if you will, is all about.”
Conway continued on to call some feminists hypocrites, while taking aim at the recent post-election women’s marches that arose largely as a protest against her boss.
“One thing that’s been a little disappointing and revealing that I hope will get better is it turns out a lot of women just have a problem with women in power. You know, this whole sisterhood, this whole ‘let’s go march for women’s rights,’ just constantly talking about what women look like or what women wear or making fun of their choices or presuming that they’re not as powerful as the men around, this presumptive negativity about women and power I think is very unfortunate because let’s just try to access that and have a conversation about it rather than a confrontation about it,” she said.
She served as Trump’s campaign manager and serves as a senior adviser to Trump now. She may have Trump’s ear more than any other female adviser besides his daughter Ivanka. She’s also a fixture on the cable news — though she seemingly had been put in time-out by the White House following a chaotic stretch where what she said about the resignation of Michael Flynn disagreed with what other White House officials were saying. After roughly a week off TV — and a report from CNN highlighting her absence from the airwaves — she made an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Wednesday evening.
Conway, a longtime GOP pollster, has spent decades criticizing liberal feminism while advocating for more women in the workplace. That includes her membership on the board of the conservative Independent Women’s Forum, a group which advocates for women “who believe in individual freedom and personal responsibility.”
Conway highlighted her blue-collar upbringing by a single mom to argue that principle was workable.
“My mother didn’t feel sorry for herself. She was left with no child support, no alimony at a very young age, with a child to raise, a high school education, and she just figured it out. She didn’t complain, she didn’t rely upon government, she relied on her own skill set, her own drive and moxie, and her own duty to me and her, and she relied upon her family and her faith. And I believe those are timeless lessons and timeless opportunities for all women in similar circumstances and situation,” she said.
And while she took aim at the term, much of Conway’s speech was spent advising young women how to succeed in the workplace — including using the “When Harry Met Sally” line “I’ll have what he’s having” to ask for equal pay.