Millie Burton

Many across the world expressed severe distress, concern and, indeed, panic for Trump’s second electoral triumph for presidency in the United States. A campaign that few people took seriously at first had turned out to become much more serious than once perceived, and the threat that a second presidency under Trump presented, became a considerably more pressing and real issue. 

One only needs to carry out a quick google search to reveal Trump’s backwards views on women, with the first result that comes up when you look up “Trump on women” being an article titled “89 things Trump has said about women.”¹; Not to be a cynic, but I fear the substantial number won’t have been reached as a result of Trump’s glowing praises of the female species. 

His scathing and inappropriate remarks on women, however, only constitute a very small part of the problem. It is his actions, rather, which prove too concerning for women living in a world where a man who, accused of such atrocities, will command the most powerful nation in the world. Trump has faced numerous sexual assault allegations, many of which have been proven to be true; just in the last year, author E. Jean Caroll successfully sued him for sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.² His words only serve to support his actions as, when speaking on the #MeToo movement, Trump said “It is a very scary time for young men in America, where you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of…Women are doing great.”³ (October 2018). Trust a narcissistic man to frame a movement – whose purpose is quite literally to expose the realities of being a woman to the world – as a sob story for the poor ‘falsely accused’ men. Empirically undermining Trump’s point, not that he needs my help, when one compares the statistic of how many men are falsely accused of sexual assault, an estimated range of 2% to 10%, ⁴with how many women are sexually harassed, a staggering 97% in the UK,⁵ it becomes evident that he is sympathising with the wrong gender yet again. 

The way Trump speaks about women in political campaigns is consistently derogatory, sexualised, and irrelevant to their governmental abilities. Trump seems to more resemble a teenage boy rating the girls in his year rather than a fully-grown man – one responsible for upholding the values of the United States, which appear corrupted at best under his leadership.

He twistedly attempts to delegitimise his opponents through sexualising them, as with his comment on Hillary Clinton in 2015: “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?” (April, 2016).⁶ It is a tactic too often adopted by insecure men, who lack real competency, so feel compelled to assert their authority through capitalising on institutionalised misogyny. 

Not to get too psychological here, but one is forced to confront the reality that the future leader of the U.S. is none other than an insecure narcissist who adopts policies that restrict the rights of women because, ultimately, he is threatened by them. 

So, what does Trump’s regressive view on women mean for women’s rights in the United States during his upcoming presidency? While we wait to see which policies Trump decides to impose, one can make the educated assumption based on his previous comments on abortion and reproductive rights. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, 20 states banned or severely restricted access to abortion, a series of events which Trump depicted as “a beautiful thing to watch.”⁷  During her election campaign, Kamala Harris asserted that if re-elected, Trump would further restrict abortion rights, with many advocates, medics, and politicians predicting that he will seek to impose a federal ban.⁸ All the more concerning is the studies indicating that restrictions on abortions have already impacted infant and maternal mortality rates: a study published in Jama Paediatrics in June found that after Senate Bill 8 was passed, which heavily restricted abortions in 2021, there was a sudden increase in infant and newborn deaths.⁹ 

Not only present issues are of concern, however. Many Democrats have warned that with Trump in power, we are likely to see much of the progress made in women’s health research under Biden undone. Among these would be the administration’s creation of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, which boosted investment in research on conditions that primarily affect the female reproductive system, and those that affect women differently than men.¹⁰ 

Despite the pessimism, we must hope Trump’s election serves as a wakeup call globally, exposing the realities of the limited rights of women and the institutionalised misogyny that is still so present within both international politics and everyday society. Women must ensure not to forget to fight for the rights that we are entitled to and remember that, regardless of how much power an individual is bestowed with, they are not entitled to control bodies that they do not own. 

All image credits to Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

1. The Week Staff. “61 Things Donald Trump Has Said About Women.” The Week, n.d., https://theweek.com/donald-trump/655770/61-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-women. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
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2.  Ibid. ↩︎
3. Ibid. ↩︎
4.  DiCanio, Margaret. The Encyclopedia of Violence: Origins, Attitudes, Consequences. Facts on File, 1993. ISBN 978-0-8160-2332-5. ↩︎
5. Open Access Government. “97% of Women in the UK Have Experienced Sexual Harassment, Finds Study.” Open Access Government, 11 Mar. 2021, https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/97-of-women-in-the-uk/105940/. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024. ↩︎
6. The Week Staff. “61 Things Donald Trump Has Said About Women.” The Week, n.d., https://theweek.com/donald-trump/655770/61-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-women. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024. ↩︎
7. FemTech World. “US Election: What Does Trump’s Win Mean for Women’s Health?” FemTech World, 8 Nov. 2020, https://www.femtechworld.co.uk/news/us-election-what-does-trumps-win-mean-for-womens-health/. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
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8.  Ibid. ↩︎
9.  Ibid. ↩︎
10.  Ibid. ↩︎