March is Women’s History Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of individual women and the progress females as a whole have made since 1776. This March, however, is one of foreboding as much of what women have accomplished is in jeopardy.

Pastor Joel Webbon, president and founder of Right Response Ministries, informed his Standard Podcast audience in 2022 that Christian Nationalism opposes women’s right to vote, that the 19th Amendment should be repealed, and when Christian Nationalism attains its goals, women will be represented in government by men.

John McEntee, a cofounder of the Right Stuff (a Trump advisor during his first term) posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) in October 2024 stating: “When we say we wanted mail only voting we meant male – M-A-L-E…The 19th Amendment might have to go.” (McEntee later said he was joking. Right.)

Dominic Bnonn Tennant, co-author of “It’s Good To Be A Man,” stated that women’s suffrage is a “rebellion” against God and that “voting is an act of rulership. Since rulership is not given women, women should not vote.” This book is touted as “A Handbook For Godly Masculinity … Men were made to rule. They always have and always will. Nothing can change that. Nothing will.”

On his website in 2018, Tennant posted an article: “5 clear reasons Christians should oppose female heads of state.” The first reason stated that ” women exercising headship violates the creation design, for Adam was formed first, and then Eve.”

On his blog, Douglas Wilson, an evangelical theologian and pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho writes that, “however we try, the sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasuring party. A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.” Men “conquering” and women “surrendering” summarizes much (if not all) of Christian Nationalism and gender roles.

In a quote-tweet, Joel Webbon noted “the 19th Amendment was a bad idea” because women are “easily deceived” and are attending “institutions for deception.”

My guess is these deceptive institutions are colleges and universities. In Webbon’s world, what could be more dangerous, disgusting and anti-Christian than educated women?

It didn’t take Trump long to further his attack on women in the military. Less than 24 hours after taking the presidential oath, Trump ousted Coast Guard Admiral Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. military. She was replaced by Admiral Kevin Lunday. As one observer noted, “Linda was fired for not being Kevin.”

In late February, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced he was removing Admiral Lisa Franchetti as the chief of naval operations, the first woman to become a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Breaking Defense notes that Trump and Hegseth, “have repeatedly talked about ridding the military of general officers they deem as ‘woke.'”

Of the 4,500 cadets at West Point, 24% are women. Over the next four years, will the Trump administration reduce the number of females entering all military academies? For Christian Nationalists, women — especially women of color — giving orders to men on the battlefield is blasphemous, unAmerican and unmanly.

On Feb. 6, military.com reported that “The Army and the Navy have taken down web pages that showcased the contributions of female soldiers and sailors, an apparent response to President Donald Trump’s executive order to kill diversity initiatives across the federal government.”

Political scientist Melissa Deckman reminds us that it’s not just men who espouse a Christian Nationalist view. In 2022, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) endorsed a Biblical view of women’s submission to men. She told a Republican gathering that, “We came from Adam’s rib. God created us with his hands. We may be the weaker sex, we are the weaker sex, but we are our partner’s, our husband’s wife.”

Shortly after the November election, MAGA men were chanting: “Your body, my choice.” They were referring to much more than abortion rights.

Deckman reports that 69% of Christian Nationalists agree that “in a truly Christian family, the husband is the head of the household, and his wife submits to his leadership.” Only 36% of Americans overall agree with that sentiment.

Frederick Clarkson, of Political Research Advocates, notes that Christian Nationalism is grounded in “dominionism” the “theocratic idea that Christians are called by God to exercise dominion over every aspect of society by taking control of political and cultural institutions.” Clarkson writes that dominionism has long been “a driver of extremism in the United States.”

Dominionism is particularly dangerous given its adherents penchant for violence. Clarkson writes, “the goal of this new dominionism is to disrupt both more mainline versions of Christianity and U.S. democracy and, in its wake, take control of state and society and yoke everyone to their authoritarian vision of the world.”

Journalist Heath Durzin reports that Moscow Idaho fundamentalists want to make that city “an explicitly Christian locale governed by Biblical principles.” Christ Church Pastor Douglas Wilson stated: “All of Christ, for all of life…some might add for all of Moscow or for all of the world.” Durzin notes that almost all of the Christian Nationalists he spoke with “want to disenfranchise nearly all women.”

In a March 1776 letter (four months prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence), Abigail Adams asked husband, John, who was attending the Continental Congress, “I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands.” John Adams ignored his wife’s plea, responding: “We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems.”

After the revolution, colonial “laws of coverture” remained in place. When a woman married, she became a feme covert; meaning her legal rights were absorbed into those of her husband. Women could not own property, control their own money or sign legal documents. Their husbands, fathers and brothers managed these affairs.

If Trump and his Christian Nationalists supporters are successful, American women will once again live in a male dominated and controlled world. Back to the future.

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George J. Bryjak lives in Bloomingdale and is retired after 24 years of teaching sociology at the University of San Diego.

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Sources

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Allbgor, C. (2012) “Coverture: the word you probably don’t know but should,” September 12, Women’s Natural History Museum, www.womenshistory.org

Bolzendahl, C. (2024) “Project 2025: A blueprint for limiting gender and racial equity in America,” November 12, Ms.,https://msmagazine.com

Deckman, M. (2023) “Not just Proud Boys: Women espouse Christian Nationalist Views, Too” March 27, Public Religious Research Institute, www.prri.org

Druzin, H. (2024) “New extremely American podcast tackles Christian nationalism through story of Idaho town,” July5, Idaho Capital Sun, htpps://idahocapitalsun.com

Cieslik, E. (2024) “Christian Nationalism’s first item on the agenda: Repeal women’s right to vote,” December 29, Ms. https://msmagazine.com

Foster, M. and D.B. Bnonn (2022) It’s Good To Be A Man, Canon Press: Moscow, Idaho

“Gender differences in 2024 vote choice are similar to most recent presidential elections” (2024)

December 24, Center for American Women and Politics, https://cawp.rutgers.edu

“John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 April 1776” (accessed 2025) Founders Online, www.foundersarchives.gov

Jones, J. (2024) “Trump supporters lay claim to women’s bodies after his election win,” November 11, MSNBC, www.msnbc.com

Katz, J. (2024) “Hegseth fires Navy’s Officer, Air Force Number 2” February 21, Breaking Defense, www.breakingdefense.com

Kime, P. (2024) “Army, Navy Pull Down Web Pages Devoted to Women in Military Service,” February 6 Military.Com , www.military.com

Lamothe, D. (2024) “Trump administration ousts Coast Guard’s top officer,” January 21, The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com

“Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March” (accessed 2025) Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org

Lopez, A. (2023) “More than half of Republicans support Christian Nationalism, according to new survey,” February 16, National Public Radio, www.npr.org

Mehrara, M. (2024) “Former Trump aid jokes about stripping women’s right to vote: ‘male only'” October 30, Newsweek, www.newsweek.com

Paulson, S. (2024) “A Christian Nationalist versus a woman voter: reading the Bible differently,” May 3, Westar Institute, www.westarinstitute.org

Tennant, B. (2018) “5 clear reasons Christians should oppose female heads of stated” November 19, Bonn, https://bnonn.com

“The new dominionism tries to rule” (2024) June 4, Souther Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org

Walsh, T. (2023) “Coverture and economic gender inequality in early America,” April 26, Legal Research Club, University of Alabama, www.legalresearchclub.ua.edu

Wilson, D. (2016) “Flatter my heart, three-person’d God…” May 22, Blog & Mablog,

Blog & Mablog

“Women’s rights in the early Republic” (accessed 2025) Crusade for the Vote, www.crusadeforthevote.org

“‘Your body, my choic,” women enraged by emboldened MAGA misogynists” (2024) November 8, MSNBC, www.msnbc.com