I just don’t like her.

Trump’s most obvious and enduring core of support consists of White Christian Nationalists. But what other factors contributed to his win in 2024? He’s always had White Christian Nationalist support. Who piled on this time?

The dark undercurrent of male supremacy ideology is what first came to my mind. It’s hard to ignore the fact that two very capable and qualified female candidates have lost to Trump and one very capable and qualified male candidate beat Trump. Does gender explain everything? Probably not, but male supremacy is a reasonable factor to explore.

Before the election, I heard people say things like, “I don’t know, I just don’t like her.” Statements like this screamed, “I don’t want a woman to be president,” to my ears. When people can’t articulate using relevant factors as to why they don’t plan to vote for a particular candidate, that indicates the presence of an extraneous quality the voter is either unaware of or does not want to express. Gender is one such extraneous quality.

Of course, skin color is another extraneous quality that may have been lurking in the subconscious minds of many a voter. But for this post I’m going to focus on gender because, after all, we’ve already elected a Black male president – 16 years ago! But somehow not a single female president of any skin color… hmm. Sixty-one other countries have had a female head of government, but not the 248-year-old United States.

The patriarchal nature of Christianity has historically served as a significant source of male supremacy beliefs in our culture. So Christianity and male supremacy can go hand in hand. But male supremacy ideology seems to extend beyond the boundaries of religion so that even some non-religious people hold these beliefs. A belief in male supremacy can be conscious or unconscious, but it seems that it continues to exist as a potent force in our collective consciousness.

Since the election, I’ve heard  the explanation, “I guess America just isn’t ready for a woman president.” What does it mean to “not be ready?” How do we “get ready?” I’m thinking it simply requires being open to evaluating candidates exclusively on their merits. We should all want the best candidate to lead and represent our nation regardless of gender. And I know there are many other factors that can go into that decision, but it’s hard not to consider the male supremacy factor given the results of the last three elections.

A belief in male supremacy is strong indeed if it can cause a highly incompetent, immoral huckster of a man to be elected the leader of our nation over a highly competent, moral public servant who happens to be a woman.

Questions to Explore:

• To what extent was male supremacy ideology a factor in this election?
• What is the source of male supremacy ideology in our culture, and why has it persisted?
• How can we work to support a gender-neutral evaluation of presidential candidates?

P.S. I was surprised to see a Democratic ad towards the end of the campaign reminding women that their husbands won’t know how they voted, so they should feel free to vote their conscience. Is this still a thing in 2024?! Apparently the campaign had reason to believe such a dynamic exists and was worth the ad dollars. For any woman operating under a male supremacy ideology, it seems possible that she does indeed follow her husband’s lead on politics. So to what extent are wives’ votes influenced by their husbands’ political views?  I’m not sure how that might be teased out, but it would be interesting to find out.