Repealing the 19th Amendment

This seems like an odd thing to talk about, but it has been in the news lately courtesy of Idaho pastor Douglas Wilson and some members of his church being interviewed on CNN, and it pops up in the rotation of issues the Titus 2 influencer set highlights in their social media feeds.

The argument given by the Titus 2 influencer set for taking the vote away from women is twofold: Women are more emotional than men, and they vote overwhelmingly for abortion. They back this up by pulling out a verse or two of Scripture and attempt to convince others the Bible prohibits women from voting.  This is a man’s job, they argue, and if a woman votes, it should only be to vote the exact way her husband votes, and under her husband’s guidance, because she should not be worrying her pretty little head about intellectual things like politics and should busy herself cooking, cleaning, and raising her children.  After all, homemaking and all the homemaking things are the only things women are allowed to be interested in under the worldview espoused by these women.

But I cannot find anything in the Bible that says women are not allowed to have a say in their government if that is the way their civil government is arranged. I would say that the Bible applies to every system of government equally when you look at Romans 13:1—  “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”  Our governmental system was put in place by men who understood human nature and designed it to be participated in by “We the People.”  Though women had few rights in culture worldwide at the time, the Founders did not say freedom was only available to men. (I realize our founding documents are not perfect, and we fought a bloody Civil War to rectify the most glaring mistake.  But overall, the ideas espoused in them were good.) Therefore, if our elected government officials, put in place by God according to Romans 13, decreed that we should amend our Constitution to allow adult women the right to vote alongside the men, then it is not a sin or a mistake. 

The Constitution never prohibited women from voting. It delegated the right to determine who could vote to the states. By the time the 19^th Amendment was ratified, 21 states had already granted women to vote, starting with Wyoming in 1869. Even back in the days of our Founding, women like Abigail Adams were interested in more rights for women, especially the right to a formal education.  I have heard it said by these Titus 2 influencers that women didn’t even want the right to vote.  But my research tells me that Mrs. Adams said that if Massachusetts had allowed women to vote (as New Jersey did for single landowning women briefly until 1807) she would have certainly exercised the right to do so.

It is also thrown out there that women “overwhelmingly” vote for abortion.  I suppose this is said because a majority vote Democrat.  But recent statistics show this is not as skewed as the influencers pushing this try to make it. Pew Research statistics from 2024 show that overall all voters break down to 49% lean Democrat/48% lean Republican. Women vote 51% Democrat/44% Republican, men vote 46% Democrat/52% Republican. Interestingly, married men and women vote Republican at 59% and 50% respectively.  While I suppose it is true that more women vote D than R, to say that women “overwhelmingly” vote for abortion seems like a stretch.  One last thing on the latest statistics, women do exercise the right to vote in much higher percentages than men, so I have to wonder what the influencers blame for that fact.  In addition to that, in the circles I run in the women not only overwhelmingly vote for pro-life candidates, but the women also (especially the empty nesters and homeschool moms) are very active in trying to get conservative candidates elected and to stop bad legislation from being passed in the state legislature. These Titus 2 influencers have no idea how many bad pieces of legislation homeschool moms have stopped through their networks and political connections, sometimes within hours.  If they had to wait for their husbands to get home and deal with it, the damage would many times already be done.

I have to wonder what in the world these people have to gain by pushing this idea.  There isn’t a solid Biblical reason to keep women from voting for who leads them, and I don’t see any swelling of support for the idea of repealing the 19^th Amendment. So all that they accomplish by saying this out loud is giving the mainstream press someone to trot out as representing the views of all Christians and Republicans.  This is certainly not a mainstream idea, and I don’t think there is any chance it’s going to happen.  After all, it’s been over 100 years since women began voting under the Constitution, and most of us cannot fathom any scenario that would necessitate changing it.  I do wonder in some cases if it is a case of negative attention driving traffic to their social media pages, which is one reason I no longer engage with these toxic women.  The more people discuss their unpopular and fringe ideas, the more traffic goes to their sites and the more their reach in society grows.

I guess what I am trying to say after all of that is, can we please stop talking about this as if it’s an idea that has any merit whatsoever? Because it doesn’t.

Now, I have a special election coming up next week and have to go decide for sure who to vote for.  And no, I will not be asking my husband who I should vote for, except to find out if he has figured out which one seems least bad in both races.  Because after two forums neither of us has decided what seems the best in both offices.  But even though my choices seem somewhat bad (at least in one race), I still must choose.  Because the 19^th Amendment gives me that right, and I will exercise it until I am no longer able.