While the media struggles to decide whether Fiorina is or isn’t a feminist, it’s possible they’re missing that her candidacy represents the beginning of a postfeminist era in politics, where what matters is a woman’s opportunity, not adherence to specific policies or a platform built on “women’s” issues.

This postfeminist approach is by no means anti-feminist. Rather, it draws on a model of women’s liberation that thrived in the past, lives in the hearts of most Americans and is ripe for resurgence: equity feminism. Equity feminism stands for the moral, social and legal equality of the sexes—and the freedom of women (and men) to employ their equal status to pursue happiness as they define it. It’s the feminism of anyone who has said, “I’m not a feminist, but ….” Equity feminism does not view men and women as opposing tribes. Theories of patriarchal oppression are not among its founding tablets. Put simply, equity feminism affirms for women what it affirms for everyone: dignity, opportunity and personal liberty.

What a refreshing change this would be for the feminist movement. Decades of squabbling over who is and isn’t a feminist, ideological policing by activist groups and demands for litmus tests on issues like abortion have created a collective cultural exhaustion around this particular f-word. Fiorina captured that divisiveness in one deft sentence: “Over the years feminism has devolved into a left-leaning political ideology where women are pitted against men and used as a political weapon to win elections.”