American women now find themselves at the center of the debate over race- and gender-based preference policies. Advocates of these programs need women's support to ensure the survival of the status quo. It is only with women voters on their side, with roughly 53 percent of the electorate, that defenders of special preferences can steer their golden cow into safe pastures. Since government maintains programs for women, preference advocates hope women will be more likely to support these programs.

Advocates of preferences rely on two tactics to align women with their cause. The first is the tactic of fear-mongering -- its machinations are the wage gap and the glass ceiling. In 1959, activists asserted that for every dollar a man earned, a woman earned a mere 59 cents. They maintained this was eo ipso proof of gender discrimination. By 1995, that gap has narrowed, but the average American woman still only takes home about 72 cents for every dollar the average man puts in his wallet. The pay gap's legacy is the "glass ceiling," a conveniently less concrete complaint about the barriers to success facing women at the highest echelons of corporate America.

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