Not so sure if this is the "long shot" issue that she should have chosen. I certainly don't see the word "feminism" defined by the "left" but merely a word that has been used in society over the years to reflect "women's rights" which is pretty well talked about on both sides of the aisle. As a simple example, I think you would be hard pressed to find any women; Democrat or Republican that wouldn't agree that women should get equal pay for doing the same job a man does. To make this a Republican or Democrat issue is IMHO quite ridiculous seeing that she was former CEO of Hewlett Packard. I don't see that this is distinguishing her from Hillary in anyway.
Carly Fiorina, and the conservative case for feminismhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/13/carly-fiorina-and-the-conservative-case-for-feminism/In a speech on the "state of women in America" Thursday, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina sought to reclaim "feminism," a word she said had been co-opted by the left.
"The left has controlled this conversation," she said in a call with the media before the event. "They have defined the term 'feminism' and 'feminist' in a certain way. And I think it's important that we reclaim that term."
Politicians are known for trying to co-opt political words used by the other side: Republicans were resolute in labeling the Affordable Care Act as "Obamacare"; President Obama later embraced the term in an attempt to change its connotations. On Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he wants his campaign to focus on "family values," a term usually associated with social conservatives that he instead used to describe progressive goals like paid family and medical leave.
Fiorina and "feminism" follows in this tradition, and it comes at a key time in a party that's struggling with female voters; in 2012, the Democratic-Republican gender gap was the widest it had been since Gallup began tracking in 1952, at 20 points. But gender in politics hasn't always been so polarizing, and the Democratic party hasn't always been the feminist party. Many early suffrage leaders were Republican, the Republican Party endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1940, before the Democrats.
Fiorina tried to place herself within that tradition, saying on the call she was in a "unique position" to comment on the state of women in America. "It has been 95 years since women got the right to vote, 50 years since the "Feminine Mystique," 16 years since I was named the first female CEO of a Fortune 50 company," said the former Hewlett-Packard head. She mentioned the low number of female chief executives at Standard & Poor's 500 companies -- only 23 -- and said, "realizing the potential of women isn't just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do."...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/13/carly-fiorina-and-the-conservative-case-for-feminism/
