What does the US election result mean for women’s rights and for an increasing gender divide?
It feels very bleak at the moment in the immediate aftermath of the US election. A dark day for America and the world, but particularly for women.
The gender divide in the run up to the US election was stark. An angry white male, well known for his misogynistic views and numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, as well as proven sexual abuse, versus a younger, inspiring black woman who foregrounded women’s health and reproductive rights.
“…whether the women like it or not…”
“I’m going to do it, whether the women like it or not,” Trump said chillingly at a rally last week. “I’m going to protect them.” As Arwa Mahdawi says, ‘protect’ really means ‘control’. And taking back control could mean anything with Trump. Visions of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale spring to mind, as the author herself reminded women recently.
Abortion rights were prominent in Kamala Harris’s campaign, after Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, and she warned women that Trump could go even further in restricting women’s reproductive freedoms, as set out in Project 2025.
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