Republican Mike
Huckabee's record on women's rights is coming under
increased scrutiny, including his endorsement of the
Southern Baptist Convention stance that women should
''graciously submit'' to their husbands and his
opposition to sending women into combat because of his
''strong traditional view'' of how women should be treated.
Republican Mike
Huckabee's record on women's rights is coming under
increased scrutiny, including his endorsement of the
Southern Baptist Convention stance that women should
''graciously submit'' to their husbands and his
opposition to sending women into combat because of his
''strong traditional view'' of how women should be treated.
Huckabee, an
ordained Southern Baptist minister, defended his record
Thursday, saying he appointed many women to high positions
in state government and on his staff during his
10½ years as Arkansas governor.
''If you look at
my cabinet, I had more women in my cabinet and on my
staff in key positions, including chief of staff, than any
other governor probably in Arkansas history,''
Huckabee said on ABC's Good Morning America.
Huckabee had been
asked on the TV show about his support of the Baptist
convention's statement of beliefs on marriage. The former
Arkansas governor and his wife, Janet, signed a
full-page ad in USA Today in support of the statement
with 129 other evangelical leaders in 1998.
''A wife is to
submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband
even as the church willingly submits to the headship of
Christ,'' the convention says in its statement of
faith. Baptist Press reported that the 1998 ad was
addressed to denomination leaders and said, ''You are
right because you called wives to graciously submit to their
husband's sacrificial leadership.''
Huckabee has
faced questions before over his support of the marriage
statement, with a rival in his 1998 reelection campaign
citing the statement and accusing Huckabee of opposing
equal pay for women.
''It's one thing
for Mike Huckabee to think a wife should submit
graciously to her husband, but it's another to have her work
for less than she's worth,'' Democratic challenger
Bill Bristow said in a 1998 ad.
Huckabee's
campaign then cried foul and accused Bristow of taking a
swipe at Southern Baptists.
In 1992, when
Huckabee was a candidate for the U.S. Senate, he said in a
229-question survey submitted by the Associated Press that
he opposed placing women in combat roles in the
military ''because of my strong traditional view that
women should be treated with respect and dignity and
not subject to the kinds of abuses that could occur in
combat.''
However,
Huckabee's traditional view of women apparently doesn't
extend to the political arena.
In the same
survey, Huckabee was asked about the number of women serving
in the House and Senate. He wrote, ''I really cannot say
whether or not the presence of so few women has made
any difference in Congress, but women are certainly as
capable as men of serving in the Senate.''
That view also
extends to the White House. Huckabee said Thursday in the
ABC interview that he fully expects a woman will be elected
to lead the country someday -- he just hopes it won't
be next year, since he wants the job.
''Will there be a
female president? Of course there will. And should
there be? Absolutely,'' Huckabee said. ''There is no gender
test for being a president. Many women have been some
of the greatest leaders in the world, whether it's
Margaret Thatcher, other great women across this
country.'' (AP)
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