Can Women Save the USA?

As I write on Saturday afternoon, we have no idea whether Harris/Walz or the Vance/Trump team will win the US presidency, but if Harris wins, it seems that it will be the women of America who have saved the USA. Polling indicates that men, especially white non-college-educated men tend to support the Trump/Vance team, with Trump also appearing to attract more Black & Latino men than ever before. By contrast, a majority of women appear to be about to give their support to Harris.

This gender divide has been growing in recent years with some women fearing that the proposed laws suppressing women rights will be like something out of Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale. This is not surprising considering the way that right-wing Christian-Nationalism seems to have become dominant in USA politics.

Abortion rights are just one part of this, with both Texas and Georgia reporting several recent cases of women dying after partial miscarriages, where doctors could not help women empty their uterus because fear of prosecution, resulting in eventual deaths (one just 3 days ago). In Texas the rate of maternal mortality cases has increased by 56% with the abortion ban being regarded as the main source of the increase. For pregnant women in Texas there is to be no escape from these laws. The NY Times reported in September 2024 that Texas has sued to block federal rules that prohibit investigators from viewing the medical records of women who travel out of state to seek abortions where the procedure is legal.

Vance (who is likely to become President if his team wins) has made several comments about women that give serious cause for concern. Vance would claim to be pro-family rather than being ‘anti-women’ and uses the excuse of humour for his derogatory ‘childless cat ladies’ comments, but he has history on this topic. In a 2021 speech at the Center for Christian Virtue he attacked a teachers union leader saying, ‘…. she doesn’t have a single child. If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.”

Among supporters of the Vance/Trump campaign there is a real fear of the female vote. There was outrage from Fox News anchor Jesse Waters when Liz Cheney urged women to “vote your conscience,” even if it meant keeping their vote for Harris a “secret” from their Trump-supporting husbands. Charlie Kirk (Turning Point USA) on the Megan Kelly show was even more outraged, describing this as marital subversion and the downfall of the American family.

By contrast the Democrat video encouraging women to vote according to their own conscience is more humorous.

I am disappointed but not surprised by the fact that more young males support Trump. In the two years before I retired, I came across several 6^th Form boys who appeared to feel excluded from normal politics, who were attracted towards people like Andrew Tate, Russel Brand and of course, Donald Trump. The perception that the world was becoming unfair to men, that expressions of masculinity were being punished, helped them to see Trump as an underdog, a victim being punished for ‘locker room talk’ about ‘grabbing pussies’. Of course, young women see this very differently, with one Twitter user citing Trump running for President despite his convictions, as one of the reasons why over 60% of USA rape victims don’t make a police report.

Today people like Tate and Brand have faded and Trump is seeking new ways to reach young men by appearing on a livestream with Adin Ross, playing golf with a group of YouTube pranksters known as the Nelk Boys, or appearing in podcasts with large male followings, such as that of Joe Rogan.

What should concern all of us is the growing partnership between the Trump and organisations such as Turning Point USA which promote ‘Christian Nationalism,’ the idea that the idea that Christians should dominate the government and other areas of public life. Many of Turning Point’s activists have strange views on the role of women in the world based on sections of the bible such as Timothy ch2 v12 ‘But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence’. At a Turning Point conference last year, Candace Owens actually said “Every ill that we are fighting right now in society has been brought forth by women.” 

During my life, both inside and outside education, I have watched the growing beneficial effect of the woman’s movement on society. In the workplace most of us have engaged successfully with both male and female managers. In schools, we now have a much greater focus on protecting young women from harassment and enabling them to pursue whatever career choice they desire. Legal and healthcare rights, protection against domestic violence and coercive control have all made the world a better place, but as recent N. Ireland deaths show, more needs to be done.

The idea that recent gains would be rolled back either here or in the USA is dreadful. I am hoping that by Wednesday, the women will have saved the USA.

Arnold is a retired teacher from Belfast.