The GOP Has A Problem...With Women

The GOP has a women's problem. Besides using women as props in elections and on websites, making derogatory remarks about them on television and generally looking like the party of "crazy white men" (see Glenn Beck, Michael Savage or Rush Limbaugh) - there are a lot of additional reasons why women have been running away from the Republican party in droves.

Just take a look at some of these statistics and examples:

• Unmarried women delivered a stunning 70 to 29 percent margin to Barack Obama and delivered similarly strong margins in races for Congress and the U.S. Senate. The 2008 election represented the highest margin recorded and a 16-point net gain at the Presidential level from 2004.

• Women More Likely to Be Democrats, Regardless of Age: A new Gallup analysis of almost 150,000 interviews conducted from January through May of this year sheds new light on the substantial gender gap that exists in American politics today. Not only are women significantly more likely than men to identify as Democrats, and less likely to identify as independents, but -- with only slight variation -- this gap is evident across all ages, from 18 to 85, and within all major racial, ethnic, and marital-status segments of society.

• GOP Senators Abandons Rape Victims: On the Senate floor, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) spoke against the amendment, calling it “a political attack directed at Halliburton.” Franken responded, “This amendment does not single out a single contractor. This amendment would defund any contractor that refuses to give a victim of rape their day in court.”

• In Health Care debate GOP Senator says: "I don't need maternity care," Kyl said. "So requiring that on my insurance policy is something that I don't need and will make the policy more expensive." Stabenow interrupted: "I think your mom probably did.

• Republican women are a minority in a minority: Out of 435 members of the House, just 17 are Republican women. Of 99 sitting senators, just four are Republican women.

And despite all this, it seems that Kathleen Parker has determined that in order to become relevant - the Republican party needs to start attracting, engaging and soliciting women:

If the GOP is really serious about expanding the party, it's time for the men to hush and let the pros take over. As the saying goes: If you need something done, hire a busy woman. Or, as the White House Project puts it: "Add women, change everything."

While I have to agree with her logic, there is a big chunk of methodology missing. How is she planning to change all of the statistics laid out above? While I think the "add women, change everything" motto is true - it is only effective if you're actually making a genuine effort to speak to women, meet them where they are at, and engage on their issues. So far, I haven't seen any of this from members of the Republican party - except for Olympia Snowe, one of the few female leaders in the GOP, with her vote for health care reform in the Finance Committee this week.

So then, the question becomes: could it be too late for Republicans to make a comeback with women?