Next week, Mike Pence will receive the "Working for Women" award from the Independent Women's Forum, a conservative non-profit organization. The award is given to "an individual who values free markets, works to create a more dynamic and innovative work world, and celebrates the valuable contributions women make to society," according to an IWF press release.
So how, exactly, does this apply to Mike Pence?
To state it simply, it doesn't. Pence has an impressive track-record of actively working against the qualifications of the very award he's receiving. This is a man who has said that the country should "send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history, where it belongs." The man who passed one of the country's strictest abortion laws during his term as Indiana governor, and also believes that working mothers stunt their children's emotional growth. The same man who has been working since 2007 to defund Planned Parenthood. He's called Mulan "liberal propaganda," and used it as an example of why he believes women don't belong in the military. He's also voted against legislation for equal pay for women a total of three times as a congressman. We couldn't think of anyone less deserving of an award celebrating what he or she has done for women than Pence.
To the dismay of feminists everywhere and to add insult to injury, Pence will receive the award at an event celebrating women's history month.
This is only further proof that we're living in an alternate, Parks & Recreation universe. Except Ron Swanson wasn't a sexist nightmare gunning to tear women down in any way possible.
Top photo from Flickr/Gage Skidmore
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Elissa Sanci is a twenty-something writer who's now a grad student studying journalism in New York because she was reluctant to start the real world. Besides drinking too much coffee and daydreaming about traveling the world, she spends most her time writing, reading and complaining about the weather. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @elissasanci.
