The Right-Wing Assault on Women’s Rights in the United States and Women’s Voting Responses

This paper starts by addressing the last decades of war on gender in the US and its high point in the overturning of Roe v. Wade and women’s constitutional right to abortion in 2022. The focus of the paper is then set on the women’s, feminist and LGBTQ+ responses through voting and political representation. We look at the gender gap in electoral behavior, which has been evolving since the 1980’s, analyzing: 1) an increased gender gap in voting turnout (more women voting than men), 2) an increased gender gap in voting (more women voting for the Democratic party) and supporting progressive policies), and 3) the intersections of gender with race, ethnicity, age and education in voting (for example, the large voting gaps between young women and young men, the persistence of a race and ethnicity gap among women’s voters, and the gender differences among non-college educated white voters). We also look at how the United States moved from notoriously holding one of the world’s lowest percentages of women’s political representation - the number of women elected to political office - to reaching the world average two years after Trump’s election in 2016, although still underperforming in relation to so many Global North as well as Global South countries. The final question raised is: how can the gender gap in voting, and especially the growing gap between young women and young men, be understood and explained in the context of the ongoing assault on women’s and LGBTQ+ rights?