Republican candidates for president had their third debate Wednesday night. During the debate, the top 10 GOP front runners discussed their stances on a variety of issues while attacking one another, the Democrats and, most predominantly, the media. However, there was one subject in particular that was missing from the discourse — women’s issues.

During the debate, only one candidate was asked directly about women’s issues by the moderators, and no other candidate brought it up on their own, showing a disconnect between the Republican candidates and women. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was asked by a moderator what he would do to help equalize women’s pay, which is currently about 77 percent of what men make in our country.

Cruz’s response was a generic one, lacking specifics about how to actually fix any of the issues women in America face on a daily basis.

He said, “Well, we’ve gotta turn the economy around for people who are struggling,” before explaining that many members of his family were single, working moms. He attacked the Obama administration for the number of women who have entered poverty and for the wages women have lost in the past eight years. Cruz finished the answer by saying he is fighting for women and Hispanics — all without giving any real solutions.

Although it was good of Cruz to address the issues single mothers face in this country, there are a whole host of other situations women experience in the United States that need to be dealt with.

According to a Gallup Poll conducted in October 2014, issues like sexual harassment, available childcare and maternity leave are among the issues that carry the most weight for women. How can we vote for someone to run this country if he or she doesn’t have a plan to address these pertinent issues affecting more than half the population?

Carly Fiorina then jumped in with negative comments about Hillary Clinton’s policies — along with the Obama administration’s — as far as equal pay for women. She explained that a conservative approach is the way to go because “[she knows] our values, our principles and our policies.”

But these answers are exactly the problem with our country’s Republican campaigns today.

Neither of the candidates gave specifics on how they would actually improve the pay gap in our country. Only two of the candidates even touched on the issue, and none of them outlined their plans for women if they became president.

Women’s issues should not simply become a Carly Fiorina issue because she is the only serious candidate who is a woman on the Republican side. The American population is 50 percent women, so all candidates need to be concerned about their standing in our country with women’s issues and have specific plans.