Why Vance’s ‘childless, cat ladies’ comment could come back to haunt him 

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is facing renewed criticism for saying the United States is run by ‘childless cat ladies.’ And political experts say such rhetoric could have disastrous effects on a demographic the GOP desperately needs to win in November: women.

In a recently resurfaced interview with Fox News from 2021,  Vance, who at the time was running for Ohio’s Senate, let his feelings about childless women be known.

“We are effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. And it’s just a basic fact if you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it.”

 Women, however, will undoubtedly wield enormous influence in this year’s U.S. election. Yet, part of earning their vote is understanding their changing lifestyle choices. For example, in the U.S. there are more single women than ever before. Over half of women in the country are unmarried or separated, and a growing number of women are skipping motherhood entirely. By the age of 40, one in six women have never given birth.

Unmarried women, turned out to be a key electorate for President Joe Biden in 2020. The majority — 63 percent — of unmarried women voted for Biden, compared to the 36 percent of those who voted for Trump.

But instead of engaging this growing electorate of women, political experts said the right has decided to pose a sort of war with the exact demographic that could have a strong impact in November.

Lauren Leader, co-founder and CEO of All In Together — a nonpartisan organization focused on engaging women voters — said the right has been at war with women on many fronts. From holding outdated beliefs of women and what their roles should be at home and at work, the far right has long thought of women as inferior, she argued. “…It’s always been a huge weakness for Republicans and part of why they have lost every election since 2016. But Trump has embraced the groups that push this.”

What might not be evident to Vance is that the so-called ‘childless cat lady’ remark might be more aspirational than disparaging. From viral trends like the “cool aunt,” which celebrates the financial freedom and personal independence reaped by women without children of their own, to the data that shows women without children or spouses are the happiest subgroup in the population. Indeed, many single, childless women are flourishing.

And contrary to Vance’s argument that these women having “no stake in America,” single women in the U.S. are contributing in a big way. Lauren Napier, founder of the SP1NSTER — a lifestyle brand that harnesses the collective spending power of single women — said “child-free women have money and time. There are trillions of dollars circulating the U.S. economy completely powered by single women. There’s even is a movement called “S.I.N.K.”, single income no kids.”

Napier, who is child-free by choice, said she wouldn’t have it any other way. “It is no different than bachelorhood — which is revered. I have a very full life and I go to bed and wake up at my own pace. This weekend I am taking a French lesson and floral design class with a group of girlfriends. I have a date tomorrow night and I am headed out to a mixer this evening. If I decide to make a night of it, I can because I am my only obligation,” she shared.

Vance’s “cat lady” comment, however, shows  a real disconnect with some women’s ability to have children in the first place, said political analyst and Republican consultant, Elise Jordan.

“It’s a cruel, insensitive comment reflective of a judgmental worldview steeped in male ignorance. To ignore the intense grief of desiring a child and being unable to conceive shows a basic gap in one’s humanity. Women lucky enough not to suffer infertility have a friend or sister in their life who has struggled to conceive. Vance managed to throw salt in a universal wound for women and the men who love them,” said Jordan.

Experts also pointed out the very real political and economic factors that influence a woman’s ability to have children: skyrocketing child care costs, cost of living, health care, abortion rights, and even maternal mortality rates.

Vance’s unearthed comment was criticized by women who are child-free, often not by choice. For Ashley Reece, a 33-year-old writer in New York, having a child is something she wants. Reece — who also happens to be a proud cat owner — planned to have a child with her husband. But in 2022, he passed away from cancer.

“For someone who has kind of made so much of their brand as being this well-rounded person going from rural beginnings to Harvard Law, you would think that this person would have a pretty diverse view of the world and the people within it,” said Reece who is a Democrat. “And for him to just kind of paint everyone who’s childless as some like miserable cat owner, who has no stake in the future… his views are a little more stunted than he he’d like to believe.”

 Actress Jennifer Aniston, who doesn’t have biological children of her own, recently criticized Vance on her Instagram Stories, “I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of the United States. All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”

Jordan said Vance’s recent remarks and the Republican party’s continued efforts to restrict reproductive rights, will only hurt them politically come November.

“Democrats should welcome a continued barrage of cruel comments as a political gift and easy cannon fodder. Access to life-saving medical care without government interference is an issue of basic human freedom. Any time Democrats can remind voters that elected Republicans inserted the government into the privacy and sanctity of personal healthcare decisions, they win politically.”

Vance, however, defended his remarks about Democratic women during an interview with Megyn Kelly on Friday.

“I know the media wants to attack me and wants me to back down on this, Megyn, but the simple point that I made is that having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way,” he said.

“It’s not a criticism of people who don’t have children. I explicitly said in my remarks, despite the fact the media has lied about this, that this is not about criticizing people who, for various reasons, didn’t have kids. This is about criticizing the Democratic party for becoming anti-family and anti-child,” he said.

Daniela Pierre-Bravo is a journalist, author, and founder of Acceso Community — a mentorship program for professional women. She is the co-author of “Earn It” with Mika Brzezinski. Her solo book, “’The Other: How to Own Your Power at Work as a Woman of Color,” is out now. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @dpierrebravo