Women fought too hard for the vote to just hand the decision to their husbands | Opinion
Oct. 28, 2024, marked the 50th anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the landmark federal law signed in 1974 that prohibited lenders from discriminating in credit transactions and finally allowed American women to hold credit cards in their own name without a father, brother, or husband acting as a co-signer.
Think about that.
Millions of women secured their financial freedoms within their lifetimes. Without the ECOA, I would not have been able to afford my car, or sign the mortgage on my home loan as a single woman. In fact, single women now outpace single men in homeownership across the country.
Throughout history, women have been told that the men in our lives know best. We are told we need to listen to male wisdom and defer to their decisions, even when the issue has a direct impact on our lives.
That’s why the campaign to encourage women to vote away from their husbands is so important this election season.
A new pro-Harris campaign ad encourages women to exercise their right to voting privacy.
“In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want and no one will ever know,” says actress Julia Roberts in the ad’s voiceover. “Remember: What happens in the booth, stays in the booth.”
Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action and Everytown For Gun Safety wrote that: “In the voting booth, women still have the right to choose. New and important ad from @VoteCommon featuring Julia Roberts reminds women that no one will know who they voted for. Pass it on,”
While some online have called the ad “patronizing” and “unnecessary,” it’s clear that even in 2024, women are still being told to submit to their husband’s will. Women’s submission to men is a core tenet of Christian evangelicalism that was also behind the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade.
The mere mention of women voting privately for Harris while publicly entertaining their husband’s support for Trump is driving misogynist conservatives absolutely insane.
Jesse Watters of FOX News said on-air if his wife secretly voted for Harris, that’s the “same thing as having an affair.”
“That violates the sanctity of our marriage. What else is she keeping from me?” Watters said during a showing of The Five. “That would be D-Day.”
An evangelical author and preacher, Dale Partridge, wrote online that “In a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband’s direction” and that “unity extends to politics.”
This is voter intimidation on the most private, damning scale. For some, canceling out their husband’s vote privately is the only option they have in what can be a terrifying power imbalance in their own homes.
Women have had the vote in this country for barely a century, and I can think of no other time in history when it has been so important to vote for the candidate willing and able to protect the bodily rights of fully one-half of this country.
I’m lucky to have grown up in a family where my father and mother were often on opposite sides of the ballot, but still loved each other and respected each other’s choices. I mourn for the children of families where one parent is so controlling that the other is afraid to even make their own political decisions.
Imagine if the ECOA was on the line. Would you vote for or against the candidate who wants women to go back to the days when a male relative had to sign for us because we were considered too weak to make our own financial decisions? The right to healthcare and reproductive freedom is no less important than that.
Your husband, your father and your brother don’t need to know who you pull the lever for.
Women, your vote is your own.
This story was originally published November 2, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
