What has become of all the strong women? At the N.O.W. headquarters, all the girls were wailing in disbelief. At the Feminist Majority, everyone's mascara had to be redone. And First-Lady-in-waiting Teresa was left speechless.

The 2004 presidential election was not just a setback for the Democratic Party. Candidate Kerry repeatedly promised to appoint pro-abortion judges to the Supreme Court and to eliminate the so-called gender �wage gap.� So Kerry�s defeat also represented a repudiation of the rad-fem agenda.

Of course, the feminist Mafia tried to put a good face on the debacle. Ann Lewis, editor of the Democratic party�s Women�s Vote Center, consoled the party faithful: �Congratulations for all you did: the telephone calls, letter writing and contributions, the woman-to-woman conversations and door-to-door canvasses.�

Over at the Planned Parenthood Federation, the ladies were in an absolute tizzy. Already counting the days until they lose their precious right to abortion-on-demand, they vowed to step up the work of its Post-Roe Service Delivery Task Force. Co-chair Chris Charbonneau advised, �Women should lobby state legislators to eradicate laws that date from the 1800s and early 1900s and that call abortion murder.�

N.O.W. president Kim Gandy issued a press release liberally sprinkled with bold-face demands: �We must fight back against Bush�s regressive policies on every issue�We must demand our senators block every Supreme Court nominee.� [www.now.org/issues/election/elections2004/041103letter.html]

�Fight back� on �every issue�? What is this, Mrs. Gandy, guerilla warfare?

To gauge the mood of the female electorate, a group of women�s organizations called Votes for Women 2004 polled 1,000 voters. The results were released this past week [www.votesforwomen2004.org/Election%20Poll%20Analysis%2011-04.pdf] -- and the news was grim.

Compared to 2000, support for democrat Kerry declined among a broad range of women: white women, married women, and older women. Even working women were less likely to vote for Kerry in 2004 than Gore in 2000. So much for all those women being kept down by the Glass Ceiling.

Only 2% of persons said that lesbian and gay rights were on their list of top concerns. I guess the N.O.W. is going to have to retool its euphemistically-named campaign for �equal marriage.�

But what most rankled the Sisterhood was the finding that only 2% of all respondents cited abortion as the issue that made them decide whom to vote for President. And 14% of women actually said the candidates were too focused on the abortion controversy. In other words, abortion has become a losing issue.

The poll found that many did not believe that women�s issues were adequately addressed during the campaigns. But now that you mention it, the poll didn�t bother to ask whether the campaigns adequately addressed the issues of men � I wonder why not.

But it was the analysis of the �gender gap� issue which reveals how the feminist movement relies on Soviet-style propaganda to advance its neo-Marxist agenda. The notion of the gender gap has been used for years to browbeat politicians into passing pro-feminist legislation.

But on November 2, the gender gap reversed itself. That day, 55% of males voted for the Republicans, while females were almost evenly split -- 51% favored Kerry and 48% gave the nod to Bush.

Radical feminism survives by churning out an unendless series of myths and falsehoods. So predictably, Feminist Majority president Eleanor Smeal issued a press release this past week with the misleading headline, �Gender Gap and Women�s Votes Pivotal in Close 2004 Election.� [www.feminist.org/pdfs/gender_gap_release.pdf]

But an honest summary would have said the exact opposite: �Men�s Votes Pivotal in Close 2004 Election.�

So now the Sisterhood finds itself on the losing side of its own issues, is witnessing the widescale erosion of its voting base, and must now resort to dis-information tactics to staunch the exodus.

Anyone have a hankie?

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