--- description: Donald Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says rape "would not exist" if women were "physiologically as strong as men." title: Trump Campaign Manager: 'Rape Would Not Exist' If Women Were Stronger image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff33530f6ac692db/6988a44dbc6cfc76e53de6b2/rtx2llj2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [motto](/tag/motto/) ## motto Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Trump's Campaign Manager Said 'Rape Would Not Exist' If Women Were Stronger by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 31, 2016 8:27 AM CUT  Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway for U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to the media at Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., August 17, 2016. Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway for U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to the media at Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., August 17, 2016.Carlo Allegri—Reuters by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 31, 2016 8:27 AM CUT Donald Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway has an interesting solution to sexual violence — it “would not exist,” she said, if women were “physiologically as strong as men.” Conway, who took the reins of Trump’s campaign earlier this month to [become](http://nation.foxnews.com/2016/08/17/kellyanne-conway-becomes-first-woman-run-gop-presidential-campaign-nets-yawn "undefined") the first woman to ever run a Republican presidential campaign in the general election, made the comments during a PBS panel discussion in 2013\. They were dredged up this week by an anti-Trump super PAC, the Democratic Coalition Against Trump, and covered by a number of media outlets, including [CNN](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/30/politics/kellyanne-conway-rape-comments/index.html "undefined"). The panel in question was tackling the topic of gender equality in the military; CNN reports that Conway — then a Republican pollster, according to PBS’ credits — brought up the subject of rape unprompted. “If we were physiologically — not mentally, emotionally, professionally — equal to men, if we were physiologically as strong as men, rape would not exist,” Conway said. “You would be able to defend yourself and fight him off.” You can watch the entirety of the conversation [at PBS.](http://www.pbs.org/to-the-contrary/watch/366/-women-in-combat;-hillary-testifies;-women-in-hollywood- "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4473683/kellyanne-conway-trump-rape/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4473683/kellyanne-conway-trump-rape/"},"headline":"Trump's Campaign Manager Said 'Rape Would Not Exist' If Women Were Stronger","datePublished":"2016-08-31T08:27:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:16.594Z","description":"Kellyanne Conway made the comments on PBS in 2013","url":"https://time.com/4473683/kellyanne-conway-trump-rape/","keywords":["motto","Military","Rape","politics","Sexual Violence","sexism","Donald Trump","kellyanne conway"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff33530f6ac692db/6988a44dbc6cfc76e53de6b2/rtx2llj2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff33530f6ac692db/6988a44dbc6cfc76e53de6b2/rtx2llj2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway for U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to the media at Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York","caption":"Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway for U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to the media at Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York","creditText":"Carlo Allegri—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4473683/kellyanne-conway-trump-rape/","name":"Trump's Campaign Manager Said 'Rape Would Not Exist' If Women Were Stronger"}}]}] ```