"A woman is like a child": MAGA quickly turns its sights on stripping Republican women of power

For decades, the anti-abortion movement has aggressively promoted women into visible leadership roles. It's for cynical reasons, namely, to bat off entirely accurate accusations that the movement is misogynist. Never mind that there have always been women who are eager to police the bodies and behavior of other women. Enough people are credulous or at least disingenuous enough to think that "I'm a woman, which means I can't hate other women" is an actual argument. For ambitious women who wanted to climb the ranks of Republican politics, anti-feminism has long been the steadiest of ladders. The propaganda value of their gender outweighed their party's larger hostility to women in leadership. 

But now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned and Donald Trump is back in the White House, many on the right feel they no longer need to hide the naked sexism fueling their movement or put up with the annoyance of women in even token leadership positions. As Kiera Butler at Mother Jones reports, the anti-abortion movement is embroiled in an escalating civil war right now over these issues. Male leaders of the Christian right have been swarming Kristan Hawkins, the 39-year-old head of a "student" anti-abortion group, demanding her ejection from the movement. It started after she objected to Republican legislators introducing bills to charge women who get abortions with murder, an extreme move she fears will backfire on the movement. But mostly it was about growing male anger on the Christian right that women are allowed leadership positions at all. 

"Removed [sic] this woman from public service," declared influential Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon, part of the "TheoBros" movement that includes the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's church. Soon other TheoBros jumped in, declaring "We need Christian men leading the fight against abortion," arguing that women's suffrage was a mistake, and accusing Hawkins of emasculating her husband by being "busy jet-setting."

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Forty-five percent of female voters backed Trump in 2024, despite his overt misogyny. Most, no doubt, believed that complicity would protect them and that the attacks would be centered on other women. But while the GOP certainly wants to strip liberal and feminist women of their rights, male MAGA leaders are showing increasing interest in bringing Republican women to heel, both culturally and through the force of law. After all, they are more likely to live and work with Republican women. If they want to feel the full flowering of male domination, it's Republican women they need to see submitting. 

Webbon and the TheoBros have been clamoring more loudly in recent months about their wish to strip women, especially their own wives, of the right to vote. "You won't let women vote? Well, our society doesn't let five-year-olds vote," Webbon explained in a May podcast. He added that "a woman is like a child" and that "God has appointed men to protect them." As Sarah Stankorb at the New Republic documented, there has been growing support in Christian nationalist circles "for the repeal of the 19th Amendment and support a 'household vote' system in which men vote on behalf of their families." Hegseth's former sister-in-law reports she heard him echo similar sentiments. 

This isn't mere idle chatter, either. House Republicans passed a bill (which stalled in the Senate) this session to require citizens to have a passport or birth certificate matching their name to vote. This would be a back-door ban on voting for any woman who took her husband's last name and doesn't have a passport, an estimated 69 million women. It would also disproportionately affect Republican women, who are more likely to be married, more likely to have changed their name and less likely to have a passport. 

Similarly, there's been a slowly rising volume on the right of talk about banning no-fault divorce, fueled by Republicans like Vice President JD Vance saying it's too easy for women — even those in abusive marriages — to leave their marriages. Legislators in red states are filing more bills to do so, and while it's unlikely any will pass soon, the goal is to create more momentum for an eventual ban. This would affect Republican women more because, as with abortion bans, only red states would even consider such laws. It's also true that red states have higher divorce rates than blue states, because sexist cultural mores lead to more unhappy marriages. But rather than treating their wives better, MAGA men are looking at making it illegal for their wives to leave them. 

There have been recent visceral examples of how the increasingly bold sexism on the right is impacting women, especially in Republican circles. Last week, D.C. police opened an investigation into Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., over allegations he beat a 27-year-old woman, not his wife, he is allegedly dating. The police report indicates the woman said Mills "grabbed her, shoved her, and pushed her out of the door," and the officers saw "bruises on her arm, which appeared fresh." Police also report that the victim let them hear Mills on the phone "instruct her to lie about the origin of her bruises." He denies the allegation. 

The situation took a darker turn Tuesday, when NBC News reported that Trump-appointed U.S. attorney Ed Martin, who has mostly been focused on firing prosecutors who worked on January 6 cases, did not sign an arrest warrant for Mills. This could destroy the case, since federal involvement is usually required when suspects are members of Congress. Martin hasn't explained his reasoning, but it's also well-documented that his boss, Trump, has long argued that "fortunately" men of a certain class have enjoyed the right to commit violence against women. But it's a privilege Trump reserves only for his friends. When immigrants or working-class men of color are accused of such crimes — even if they are shown to be innocent — Trump calls for extreme punishment, including the death penalty. 

Less terrifying but still disturbing is the tabloid-esque drama regarding MAGA billionaire Elon Musk and women who have (or say they have, with evidence) children with him. Right-wing influencer Ashley St. Claire sued Musk this week for proof of paternity, citing text messages from him such as "I knock you up again," even though, she says, he barely bothers to visit with the existing child. Even more disturbing, Canadian singer Grimes — whose children with Musk have been legally acknowledged — took to X to beg him, "Plz respond about our child’s medical crisis. I am sorry to do this publicly but it is no longer acceptable to ignore this situation. This requires immediate attention.”

Feminist writer Moira Donegan wrote on Bluesky that the right-wing woman "believes that sexual and reproductive service to right wing men will earn her their protection, affection, and material support. She is wrong." Instead, Donegan wrote, "it is a core belief of the right wing man that no woman, however compliant, has any claim on him that he must respect."

To be sure, it's not just conservative women who are at risk at the hands of an increasingly misogynist MAGA movement. That much was illustrated in a distressing incident in Idaho, where three men accosted a woman who spoke out at a town hall, dragging her fighting out of the room while the local sheriff cheered them on. They were later revealed to be security guards, but it appears that wasn't clear at the time — and it's certainly questionable that violence was necessary because a woman was heckling Republican officials at a public event. Abortion, the Associated Press reported, appears to have played a triggering role in the display of violence. "One lawmaker mentioned legislation that he said protected doctors from 'being forced to do abortions,'" to which audience members shot back “women are dying" and "doctors are leaving our state!” 

During a GOP town hall at Coeur d'Alene High School, Teresa Borrenpohl called out, “Is this a lecture or a town hall?” Witnesses said three unidentified men, who were not wearing badges or ID, then physically removed from her seat by order of the Idaho county sheriff.

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— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 12:20 AM

That footage is viscerally shocking, but crucially, Republican women are fools if they think that treatment will only be reserved for Democratic women. On the contrary, because Republican women tend to be in closer proximity to Republican men, they're far more likely to be on the receiving end of anger over talkback or other perceived insubordination.