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\nSouth Carolina women are watching closely as the FBI investigates Christine Blasey Ford’s three-decades-old accusation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, charges he has vigorously denied.<\/p>\n
Against the backdrop of the political drama playing out in Washington this week and the searing stories of sexual assault that Ford’s revelation has sparked, women are searching for ways to make politics more relevant to their lives, experts say.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there is a real appetite in South Carolina for better representation for women and women\u2019s issues,\u201d Eme Crawford, the director of communications and learning at Women\u2019s Rights and Empowerment Network (WREN), said. \u201cWe have the midterm elections coming up and I think women here have a sense that something that shouldn\u2019t be politicized is being politicized in the Kavanaugh-Ford case.<\/p>\n
“Republicans are trying to get their guy into office before the midterm elections, and there\u2019s a distaste for putting politics on top of women\u2019s experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
WREN is a nonpartisan network with the purpose of building a movement to protect and advance the well-being and rights of women and girls in South Carolina. According to the South Carolina Election Commission, in 2017 there were over 303,000 more women registered to vote than men, making women a powerful demographic politically in the state.<\/p>\n
Thursday’s testimony by Ford and Kavanaugh’s impassioned rebuttal to the accusation has captured the nation\u2019s attention. However, the case is particularly pertinent to female voters, following a year charged with action related to the Me Too movement and a new awareness of sexual assault and harassment in established institutions, issues in which women have been the main victim-survivors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I do think the Kavanaugh-Ford case is polarized politically, I also think it is polarized in a gendered way too,\u201d said Dawn Campbell, associate professor of women and gender studies at the University of South Carolina. \u201cI think this has been occurring a long time but I think this case and also the Me Too movement have brought it out. While there have been some male survivors who have come forward, predominantly it\u2019s women and it is predominantly women driving the movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 45 percent of women in South Carolina report being victims of rape or other sexual assault, according to the \u00a0South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. The issue of sexual assault is particularly relevant for South Carolina, and many women in the state are watching the Kavanaugh-Ford case in light of their own personal experiences.<\/p>\n
The years that have passed since the alleged incident in 1982 and today\u2019s hearings do little to discredit the allegations in the minds of some watching the process who are themselves survivors of sexual assault. It isn\u2019t unusual for victims of sexual assault or harassment to wait many years before coming forward, or to never come forward at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been seeing women all across our nation talking about why they didn\u2019t report,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t report because they\u2019re young, they\u2019re scared, they\u2019re afraid that they won\u2019t be believed. When a survivor comes forward, they are the ones to be put under the microscope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others, however, are not so sure that the 36 years that have passed since the time when the assault took place have not had an impact on the credibility of Ford\u2019s testimony, or on her memory of the incident in general.<\/p>\n
State Senator Katrina Frye Shealy, R-Lexington, is a female politician in South Carolina who believes that Ford is truthful in her account of sexual assault, but also questions Ford\u2019s ability to correctly remember the perpetrator.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that both Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford were treated unfairly in the situation, but I think Dr. Ford got some of the details confused as to who it was,\u201d Shealy said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time. If there had been more substantial evidence I would see the need for more investigation, but Ford is not able to recall a time or a place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of the personal views that women in South Carolina hold on the Kavanaugh-Ford case, however, most agree on the impact that this high-profile issue has had on female voters. With a case that involves sexual assault allegations as well as a female bringing her story into the national eye, a new wave of women coming forward and sharing their experiences is growing even stronger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are a lot of situations where women have been treated wrongly and I think women have been afraid to come forward,\u201d Shealy said. \u201cI\u2019m glad that now it\u2019s being taken seriously and I think it\u2019s going to make a difference in the way people act moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Eme Crawford is the director of communications and learning at Women\u2019s Rights and Empowerment Network (WREN), a resource for women and girls in South Carolina. She said that the Kavanugh-Ford case is an important factor in the decisions that women in South Carolina will make in the upcoming midterm elections.<\/p>\n
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