For women, Kavanaugh’s confirmation is about more than Roe v. Wade

The word "women" appears in the Democratic Party platform 49 times. By comparison, the word "men" appears four times. Women and girls have three sections of the platform devoted entirely to them. These three sections discuss protecting women's rights (two sections) and ending violence against women (one section).

If one were to consider only the Democratic Party platform, women are victims in an unforgiving world. Whether it be to their rights or physical safety, women are under threat at every turn.

The growing economic status of women, however, is largely ignored. According to Forbes, women now earn more than half of all bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees. Seventy percent of women with children under the age of 18 work outside the home, and women serve as the primary breadwinners in 40 percent of these households.

Women hold over half of all management and professional positions. And, perhaps most surprising given the Democrats' focus on guaranteed equal pay, women control more than half of the nation's personal wealth.
Women are, as the vernacular goes, #winning.

This growing force includes unmarried women. Per Harvard University, unmarried women are buying homes at twice the rate of unmarried men, and unmarried women comprise more than a full third of real estate ownership growth since 1994.

In addition to their growing educational, financial, and professional stature, women are also exercising their political voices; according to Rutgers University, women outvote men, both nominally and proportionally.

From their platform, Democrats appear to be champions of women. So why are they infantilizing a group of people who are outperforming their male counterparts in a wide range of factors?

We have now seen two weeks' worth of lobbying against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Many of the objections cite women's rights as a reason to deny this (or, indeed, any) conservative nomination. By making Roe v. Wade the linchpin of these protests, however, Democrats ignore all the other issues important to women as breadwinners, heads of households and businesspeople.

Women, both single and hitched, are a bloc of power and wealth. Such a group would surely want predictable laws on a wide range of issues — taxation, regulation, patents, defense, and free speech to name a few. By interpreting the laws as written, Brett Kavanaugh would provide stability in interpreting constitutional provisions.

Women are not shy about voting for both the people and policies they desire. Correspondingly, they should have faith that the laws put into place by those candidates for whom they vote will not be revamped at the whim of the Supreme Court. Otherwise, the court, as a wholly unelected body, can give ever-broadening powers to government based upon an elastic construction of constitutional interpretation.

As a single woman under the age of 30, I fit the mold for these new, up-and-coming females. I have a house, a master's degree and many professional aspirations. I am also a constituent and supporter of Sen. Lisa Murkowski's. I hope she does the right thing.

Sarah Brown was born and raised in Fairbanks and is a graduate of West Valley High School. She received her bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania) and her master's degree from the University of Oxford (England). She can be reached at sarah.jane.brown5@gmail.com.

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