Commentary
New essays and articles by Susan Faludi.
The Mythical “Security Mom”
October 9, 2007
The invention of the mythical “Security Mom,” who supposedly was desperate for a presidential sheriff to protect her family, Time feature story, 2003.
Pollster David Winston of the GOPaffiliated research firm the Winston Group, asserted that “most Americans see the 9/11 attacks as a defining moment in their lives—and no one group was more affected than women, especially married women with children.” In an October 2004 column in the New York Post titled, a tad defensively, “Security Moms Are Real,” Winston described the emergence of this new female perspective:
To go from a narrowly defined question about cockpit security to a grand statement about the impact of 9/11 on women was something of a leap, and Winston offered only one other study to justify it: a 2004 poll conducted by his group just a few weeks after the Beslan school massacre that found that 26 percent of married women with children cited “defense/terror” as their top concern, narrowly beating out “economy/jobs,” at 24 percent. (He did not offer comparable figures for men.) Nonetheless, pollsters on both sides of the party divide were ready to jump. The presidential candidates were playing the part of guntoting sentinels to speak to the security mom’s fears as much as to her husband’s fury, as electoral analysts informed the press. “It’s about getting men’s votes, but this year it’s also about getting women’s votes,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told USA Today in the fall of 2004. “What in the past seemed too arrogant, too macho, women really like this cycle. They want someone who will do what it takes to protect America.”25
The Bush campaign’s “W Stands for Women” initiative was based on that premise. Frontloaded with female volunteers and merchandised with pink baseball caps for sale on the WStandsforWomen Web site, the effort launched in May 2004—timed to coincide, of course, with Mother’s Day. Mindy Tucker Fletcher, cochair of the W Stands for Women national steering committee, told the press that for the security mom the election would come down to one question: who would she want to protect her “if September 11 happened again?” To answer that question, the W promoters offered up two such mothers who were all in the family—literally. “You know, I’m a security mom,” Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter Elizabeth told CNN. “I’ve got four little kids. And what I care about in this election cycle is electing a guy who is going to be a commander in chief, who will do whatever it takes to keep those kids safe.” The second was Laura Bush, who quickly attained status as the Mother of All Security Moms. On the afternoon talk shows, in ads on the Web sites of women’s magazines like Ladies’ Home Journal and Family Circle, and, ultimately, from the dais of the Republican National Convention, she assured American mothers of “George’s work to protect our country and defeat terror so that all children can grow up in a more peaceful world.”26*
Pollster David Winston of the GOPaffiliated research firm the Winston Group, asserted that “most Americans see the 9/11 attacks as a defining moment in their lives—and no one group was more affected than women, especially married women with children.” In an October 2004 column in the New York Post titled, a tad defensively, “Security Moms Are Real,” Winston described the emergence of this new female perspective:
My first inkling that 9/11 would have more than just a passing impact on women came only a month after the attacks. As Congress considered legislation to allow the arming of pilots, I did a survey for the Allied Pilots Association and United Seniors Association. One finding surprised a lot of people: Married women with children were the biggest proponents of putting guns in the cockpit—favoring the idea by a whopping 78 percent, five points higher than men.
To go from a narrowly defined question about cockpit security to a grand statement about the impact of 9/11 on women was something of a leap, and Winston offered only one other study to justify it: a 2004 poll conducted by his group just a few weeks after the Beslan school massacre that found that 26 percent of married women with children cited “defense/terror” as their top concern, narrowly beating out “economy/jobs,” at 24 percent. (He did not offer comparable figures for men.) Nonetheless, pollsters on both sides of the party divide were ready to jump. The presidential candidates were playing the part of guntoting sentinels to speak to the security mom’s fears as much as to her husband’s fury, as electoral analysts informed the press. “It’s about getting men’s votes, but this year it’s also about getting women’s votes,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told USA Today in the fall of 2004. “What in the past seemed too arrogant, too macho, women really like this cycle. They want someone who will do what it takes to protect America.”25
The Bush campaign’s “W Stands for Women” initiative was based on that premise. Frontloaded with female volunteers and merchandised with pink baseball caps for sale on the WStandsforWomen Web site, the effort launched in May 2004—timed to coincide, of course, with Mother’s Day. Mindy Tucker Fletcher, cochair of the W Stands for Women national steering committee, told the press that for the security mom the election would come down to one question: who would she want to protect her “if September 11 happened again?” To answer that question, the W promoters offered up two such mothers who were all in the family—literally. “You know, I’m a security mom,” Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter Elizabeth told CNN. “I’ve got four little kids. And what I care about in this election cycle is electing a guy who is going to be a commander in chief, who will do whatever it takes to keep those kids safe.” The second was Laura Bush, who quickly attained status as the Mother of All Security Moms. On the afternoon talk shows, in ads on the Web sites of women’s magazines like Ladies’ Home Journal and Family Circle, and, ultimately, from the dais of the Republican National Convention, she assured American mothers of “George’s work to protect our country and defeat terror so that all children can grow up in a more peaceful world.”26*
