By Katrina vanden Heuvel
The Nation.

What is up with Linda Hirshman? The feminist professor, author of "Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World," wrote one provocative article in the American Prospect a few years ago. Since then she's produced some illogical pieces. In Sunday's Washington Post article Hirshman belittles and trivializes women voters with such descriptions as "the fickleness of the female voter"; "American women aren't strategic enough to form a meaningful political movement directed at taking power"; and "avoiding [the] gauntlet may be one more reason women are tilting toward Obama."

The article is pretty insulting in some of its claims.

I thought it might make sense to talk to Page Gardner, Founder and President of Women's Voices. Women Vote. (WVWV) and get her thoughts about the piece and the impact women have had thus far in the primary season as we enter Ohio and Texas.

"It's not about being fickle," Gardner told me. "Different women have different lives. Obviously, one of the key differences is marital status. There is a difference in how an unmarried woman with a kid, living on $40,000 or less, is going to participate and vote than a married woman whose average income is $75,000 or more. People who speak of women as a monolithic voting bloc get it wrong."

And while Hirshman suggests that somehow women are failing to achieve their potential as a voting bloc, Gardner has a very different view. "Unmarried women are turning out in historic numbers. So you see this whole new group of women who are different coming into the electorate, and that's a sea change. And, unmarried women in large part have been the largest swing voters between Clinton and Obama state to state. If you look at the Super Tuesday states, for example. Unmarried women were 24% of the registered voters, and yet they were 26% of the electorate. That is enormous. It's just unbelievable… and, they were a greater share of the Democratic primary electorate than they were in the general elections of 2006. So, this historic bump – and which women are turning out – is really the story."

And while Hirshman suggests women are "avoiding the gauntlet," Gardner sees a growing awareness of their electoral power. "The fact that women are swing voters in state after state, it's all to the good," she said. "If you look at that in terms of a general election, there is no question they will determine who is in the White House. That means candidates need to pay a lot more attention to the differing agendas of different women – whose lives are very different in America."