Women's groups can't believe Vice President Pence won the first-ever "Working for Women" award

The vice president will be honored by a Washington-based conservative nonprofit that created the award this year

Published March 23, 2017 3:47PM (EDT)

 (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Vice President Mike Pence will be honored with an award for his efforts in helping women, which has stumped women's and civil right's groups that view Pence as an antagonist to women's issues. The Independent Women's Forum, a conservative think tank, named Pence its first recipient of the new “Working for Women” award.

Independent Women's Forum (IWF) puts high priority on free-market policies, which it argues will help women take care of themselves and their families. Pence's work apparently embodies the think tank's philosophy.

“Vice President Pence’s name was at the top of the list given his track record of advocating for free markets and limited government including rolling back heavy taxation and regulation,” IWF spokeswoman Victoria Coley said in an email. “These policy positions help create the conditions for more women to thrive professionally and personally and pursue their vision of the American Dream.”

Women's and civil right's groups were subsequently floored when they heard of the award.

The director of the Women's Rights Project for the American Civil Liberties Union, Lenora Lapidus, said that Pence has spent his entire career in politics "working against women."

“I must say I find it somewhat ironic that he would be winning the 'Working for Women' award when basically he has spent his career in politics working against women, not for women,” Lapidus told The Washington Post. “He has a long track record both during his years in Congress and as governor of Indiana of basically taking position after position that is anti-women and harmful to women.”

Before President Donald Trump pegged Pence to be his running mate, he was the governor and former congressman of Indiana. A staunch conservative, Pence describes himself as a “born-again, evangelical Catholic” who uses his faith to inform his life.


By Taylor Link

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