Yes, Kellyanne Conway Can Be A Mom & Have A Job

The incoming counselor to the president isn't pulling any punches when it comes to people questioning her ability to do her job. In an interview with Fox Business on Thursday, Kellyanne Conway responded to a sexist question in a way that shows she is sick of the double standards women face in the workplace.

After journalist Maria Bartiromo brought up that fellow Fox host Juan Williams questioned how Conway would juggle her new role with caring for her four kids, Conway replied, "I will say that I don't play golf, and I don't have a mistress, so I have a lot of time that a lot of these other men don't." She went on to add that she hopes "that we can continue the conversation as a nation about the balance that many men and women face."

And as CNN producer Terence Burlij took to Twitter to point out, Conway's comment is similar to one she made earlier in October to CNN's Dana Bash and Abigail Crutchfield for an article called, "How the GOP's first female presidential campaign manager manages Donald Trump." As the nearly identical comments illustrate, this is a question Conway has had to answer before and one she will surely continue to shut down. And while she didn't explicitly characterize questions about her work-life balance as sexist, she did imply that her male colleagues don't face the same line of questioning.

Despite spinning the question in expert fashion to focus on how hard she works in comparison to her male colleagues, Conway has come under fire for making what many saw as sexist and anti-feminist comments herself. In an interview earlier this month during Politico's Women Rule Summit, Conway said she wouldn't take a White House position because of how young her children are. "My children are 12, 12, 8, and 7, which is bad idea, bad idea, bad idea, bad idea for mom going inside [the White House]," she said. Her comment led to much criticism that she was imposing a sexist double standard on herself. But apparently her viewpoint has changed, as she is now "really pleased and frankly very humbled to take on this role in the West Wing."

Even despite Conway's response to accusations that she can't juggle being a mother and working in the White House, she is not likely to be lauded as a feminist icon anytime soon. She is working on a team led by a man who has made several sexist comments in the past, has been accused multiple times of sexually assaulting, has implied that sexual assault is inevitable in mixed-gender military units, and has promised to appoint an anti-abortion justice to the Supreme Court. With all of that on her plate, Conway may not have time to take on golf or a mistress, even if she wanted to.