Binders Full of Women: Mitt Romney’s 2012 Presidential Debate Phrase Becomes Hot Social Media Trend on Twitter and Facebook

During Tuesday evening's second round of the 2012 Presidential Debates, Republican nominee Mitt Romney fired off a phrase that soon flooded social media outlets by storm - "binders full of women." What exactly was Romney referring to with such an odd expression? Well, he was responding to a question posed about gender pay inequality, and went on to explain that even after searching through "binders full of women" in order to find female employees to work on his campaign, none were qualified for the job - which is why Romney is surrounded by a staff full of men. Soon after Romney even mouthed the phrase, it went viral on popular social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and beyond. "Binders full of women" has become quite the hilarious political phenomenon.

Romney's full response to Katherine Fenton's question: "In what new ways do you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?"

Romney: "[While building my Cabinet]...  I-and I went to my staff, and I said, 'How come all the people for these jobs are-are all men.' They said: 'Well, these are the people that have the qualifications.' And I said: 'Well, gosh, can't we-can't we find some-some women that are also qualified?' And-and so we-we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women's groups and said: 'Can you help us find folks,' and they brought us whole binders full of women."

A mock Tumblr account was set up on Twitter following the debate dubbed @Romneys_Binder. It already has close to 14,000 Twitter followers. Check out some of the funny posts parodying Romney's new "catchphrase":

@Romneys_Binder: "We welcome all immigrants into my binder."

@Romneys_Binder: "Hey @CrowleyCNN you are welcome to join my binder after the debate." (Candy Crowley was the Debate mediator on Tuesday).

@Romneys_Binder: "Mitt Romney: 'I want to make America the most attractive place in the world for my binder.'"

@Romneys_Binder: "Mitt Romney: 'BTW I've done these things. (In my binder).'"

@Romneys_Binder: "My Women In Binders policy is already being greeted with open arms in the international community."

‏@Romneys_Binder: "Good morning America. If you are a woman I will be having open binder enrollment later today."

President Barack Obama's Twitter even got into the "binders full of women" spirit of things, tweeting:

@BarackObama: "Mitt Romney still won't say whether he'd stand up for equal pay, but he did tell us he has 'binders full of women.'"

And on Facebook, numerous "binders full of women" pages have managed to pop up in the mere few hours since Romney coined the phrase. Check out just one of the many Facebook groups (which also has close to 4,000 followers). Some comments...

"I went to bed steamed over the Binders Full of Women statement and awakened steamed all over again. I found it demeaning!"

"Thank you for having me in this group! I was shocked by the Governor's remarks last night and am proud to be part of the response. No, Governor, women are equal members of our society who don't need your binders to feel their worth. You, sir, do a discredit to all Americans when you make such statements."

"The best thing about Romney's "binders full of women" comment? He managed to justify the need for affirmative action and alienate women in just 3 words. Nice."

Along with funny pics such as this one:

But what makes this phrase even more interesting is... Romney may be lying. Apparently, women's groups were concerned about the gender inequality issue even before the gubernatorial elections, so they put together binders and then gave them to Romney AFTER he was elected. He supposedly didn't reach out in the way he suggested during Tuesday night's debate. Check it out.

So, what do readers think about the whole "binders full of women" social media trend?