Alarmed about something it labels "religiopolitics," the feminist Center for Gender Equality commissioned a survey of 1,000 women to uncover the presumably sinister "impact of conservative religious political activism on women's attitudes about their equality and their role in society."
The upshot: Women love religion! Three quarters of them call it "very important" in their lives. It gives them friendship, support, and ethical standards, and they welcome its influence on the public stage.
As the center puts it, "Overall, women think that religious organizations have a positive impact on American life and would like them to be more involved in the public debate. . . . They believe that religious organizations are not a threat to their own interests or to the interests of women in general."
On that last point, the survey amounts to an especially galling rebuff: "Does your involvement with your religious organization make you feel that to be a good wife you must allow your husband to make decisions for the family?" No: 66 percent. "Does it make you feel uncomfortable about your political beliefs?" No: 88 percent. "About your sexuality?" No: 88 percent. "Does it make you feel you should be critical or speak against people who don't follow your church's teachings?" No: 89 percent. More than twice as many women think the Christian Coalition serves women's interests as think it is a threat.
Amid all this serenity, though, one trend confirms the feminists' worst fears: women's growing conservatism on abortion. A full 70 percent of American women now favor more restrictions on abortion, and 40 percent would ban it altogether or allow it only after rape or incest or to save the mother's life.
"Complex and disturbing," is how the center, headed by Faye Wattleton, longtime executive director of Planned Parenthood, sums up the survey's findings. Of course, almost any faithful sounding of real people's views is bound to seem dizzyingly complex if the only fixed point of your mental universe is that a woman's dignity depends on her absolute, unhindered right to abort her pregnancies.