During Oregon’s second gubernatorial debate on Friday, Republican candidate Bud Pierce said that educated women are not susceptible to abuse because they have the resources to avoid putting themselves in that situation.
The response came one week after the release of a stunning statewide report that found more than 50 percent of women and girls in Oregon said that they had been the victim of sexual assault or domestic violence.
Pierce’s response drew immediate rebuke from the audience at the question-and-answer session on Friday, during which the moderator — Oregonian editor Laura Gunderson — asked Pierce and his rival, current Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, about their plans to help women in Oregon find safety and opportunity.
Brown, who spoke first, said she had been a victim of domestic violence. She also said she knew what it was like to be unable to get restraining orders for her clients against abusive partners. And she said that she would continue to fight for laws so that four out of five domestic violence survivors and sexual assault victims wouldn’t be turned away for help.
In response, Pierce said that laws can only do so much — and that education can help make women “powerful” so that they won’t find themselves in abusive situations in the first place.
“You really talk about making someone powerful,” Pierce said. “A woman that has a great education and training and a great job is not susceptible to this kind of abuse by men, women, or anyone.”
The audience booed. Brown covered her mouth in shock.
“So powerful women have access to lawyers and courts and go at it,” Pierce continued. “But the women who are most vulnerable are poor women who don’t have a place to turn because they don’t have shelter, they don’t have family around them, so I would argue that in addition to strong laws, and going after every sexual predator and every abuser, that the way we can make women have a better existence and be less susceptible to being harmed is to make them powerful in terms of their jobs and opportunity because again, women that are in a safe place, whether they’re in a family or are independent and have resources, have ways of protecting themselves so when you have no resources, you’re very vulnerable.”
“I’m honestly not sure where to start,” Brown said in response. “I grew up in a middle-class family. I went to law school. I know what it feels like to be paid less, substantially less, than the male lawyer in the office next to me. This is not just about power. It’s about making sure that people aren’t discriminated against because of their gender, because of their race and because of their sexual orientation.”
The event was the second of five scheduled debates between the two candidates.
Pierce later released a written statement about his comments saying, “I know that any women, regardless of economic status, can be subject to domestic violence and sexual abuse.”
“Women who victims in these situations are not at fault and should not be blamed for being in a dangerous situation,” he added.
Update: @BudPierce4Gov issued a written statement about his domestic violence comments and apologized to @KateBrownForOR pic.twitter.com/OUKHlWTmIy
— John Tierney (@jtierney6) October 1, 2016
It’s a widespread myth that educated women with training and jobs aren’t susceptible to domestic violence and sexual assault. In fact, violence and assault are indiscriminate and can happen across the socio-economic divide. One in three women and one in four men have been the victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
Educated women, like Brown, can certainly be abused. And jobs don’t necessarily protect women. Abusive partners often show up at women’s workplaces because that’s an easy place to find them. In fact, between 2003 and 2008, 142 women were murdered in their workplace by their abuser.
However, it is true that low-income women are more than twice as likely to be the victims of intimate violence because they are uniquely economically disadvantaged to remain in the same situation. These women may be economically dependent on their abuser or may be trapped because abusers can threaten to take away the children.