Author: Jodi Enda, The Fuller Project

Jodi Enda is the Washington bureau chief and senior correspondent for The Fuller Project.

Women Support Harris, but the American Presidency Remains a Male Bastion

In the end, Americans chose the man whose presidency led to the undoing of abortion rights over the woman who said she would fight to restore them. And yet, in seven of 10 states, residents also voted to protect and in some cases reinstate their legal right to abortion, which is supported by the vast majority of Americans.

The seeming disconnect might be explained by the fact that many more voters were concerned about the economy, and felt they were personally harmed by inflation, than they were about abortion, according to exit polls. Or it might be explained by the fact that the United States never has elected a woman, let alone a woman of color, to be president—and wasn’t ready to do so now. That’s a question the exit polls did not ask.

Sexism in Politics: It’s the Same Old Story

Donald Trump—who arguably is not likable to a good many people, who is not respected by a percentage of world leaders (or some of his own former generals and advisers), who doesn’t represent everyone (women who want abortion rights, to name one group), who has danced (or, at least, swayed) publicly, who consistently lies, whose cognitive abilities have come into question and whose behavior is notably unpresidential—has to jump through fewer hoops than Kamala Harris.

Being a man will do that for you.

Harris Campaign’s Message to Women: Vote Your Consciences

Even as one of their own vies to be the first female president, even with abortion rights high on the list of campaign issues, even after more than a century of suffrage, some women still look to their husbands and other trusted men before casting their ballots.

The phenomenon is not new, but it could make the difference in a presidential race that is projected to be unusually tight. And because polls predict what could be a record-setting gender gap—with the majority of women voting for Harris and most men backing former President Donald Trump—the possibility that even a small number of women will vote like their men has Harris supporters nervous.

A Trump Victory Could Reinvigorate a Global Antiabortion Pact: ‘Women Are Going to Die’

Abortion is one of the most pivotal issues that will determine whether Trump returns to the Oval Office. The Republican nominee routinely brags about his role—via three Supreme Court nominations—in overturning Roe v. Wade in a 2022 ruling that inevitably limited abortion access for millions of people in the United States.

Less known is the work that Trump and his appointees did to prevent women in other countries from obtaining the procedure.

A Second Trump Presidency Could Be Deadly for Women Overseas

The first time Donald Trump was president, he imposed a strict, overseas antiabortion policy that caused 108,000 women and children to die and 360,000 people to contract HIV/AIDS, according to a journal of the National Academy of Sciences. If voters send him back to the White House, those numbers, staggering as they may be, would be dwarfed by what comes next, reproductive rights advocates contend.

Will Young Women Be Her Superpower? Harris Energizes Young Voters, Who Support National Abortion Rights

During her short campaign for the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris has reinvigorated the nation’s youngest voters—particularly women under 30, who support her by a massive 3:1 margin, according to a new national poll released Tuesday by the Institute of Politics at Harvard.

A longtime advocate for abortion rights, Harris appears to be benefiting from Americans’ overwhelming support for restoring the protections lost after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Abortion has been a motivating factor in elections the past two years and is likely to be so again, especially in states where abortion initiatives are on the ballot. The key issue already has been at the center of the presidential campaign, with Trump taking credit for the Court’s ruling and Harris laying blame for the resulting abortion bans at his feet.

In This Debate, a Woman Was the ‘Bigger Man’

If there was any doubt that a woman could lead this country, it was put to rest last night. From the moment she crossed the stage and reached out her hand to greet Donald Trump, Kamala Harris dominated the presidential debate on substance, style and seriousness.

Like the prosecutor she used to be, the vice president made her case sharply and cleanly, identifying and exploiting Trump’s weaknesses. In doing so, she effectively undercut her opponent’s longtime strategy of snidely attacking, denigrating and even looming over women in debates.

This Election, It’s Women’s Choice

After the Supreme Court’s unprecedented 2022 decision to revoke a constitutional right, abortion changed the course of elections for two years running. As the nation approaches the first presidential election of the post-Roe era, Democrats—who are fielding a woman presidential candidate who champions abortion rights—are banking on the issue to bolster them again.

Many public polls predict it won’t. But are these polls right? Not so much, say numerous polling experts.

(This article originally appears in the Fall 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

The Feminist Fight for Gender Equity: Lisa Ann Walter and Advocates Renew Push for ERA Ahead of 2024 Elections

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the battle to restore abortion rights has been front and center. Less visible are efforts to enshrine women’s equality into the Constitution—the continuation of a campaign that conservatives thought they killed more than 40 years ago. Not true.

Champions of the ERA have been working tirelessly to get Congress to publish the 101-year-old measure that would ban gender-based discrimination. Although women have made considerable strides over the last century, a constitutional right is the only guarantee they will make further gains and keep them in perpetuity.

How Kamala Harris Is Changing the 2024 Electorate

Vice President Kamala Harris has changed the face of the upcoming presidential election, but she also appears to be changing the face of this year’s electorate.

A pattern has existed for decades: When Democrats win the presidency, it is usually because of their support among women. With Harris in the race, the electorate is likely to be younger, more female and more supportive of abortion rights than it would have been with President Biden as the Democratic nominee, polls have found. In the eight days after Biden withdrew from the race and tapped Harris, the motivation to vote among people in five battleground states jumped 42 points. The shift in enthusiasm was even greater among women, but Harris maintained Biden’s level of 37 percent support among men too.