You know you’ve reached a low point when reporters need to ask if America’s defence secretary does, in fact, support women having the vote. Yes, a hard and long fought-for basic right to have a voice in public life. Yet they were prompted to when, earlier this month, Pete Hegseth approvingly posted a CNN segment on Christian nationalist and pastor Doug Wilson.
In the clip, women were referred to as unskilled breeders. In a staggeringly patronising remark, Wilson told the female reporter: “Women are the kind of people that people come out of.” He added: “It doesn’t take any talent to simply reproduce biologically”, as countless women sat on their couches yelling that they’d like to see him try.
In Wilson’s vision of a theocratic Christian society, women would not vote individually. A pastor of one of his churches told CNN the 19th Amendment should be repealed because there would be a household vote, cast by the man. Another pastor stressed he’d discuss it with his household first. (There’s a recipe for domestic harmony!)
Women are to obey, men to lead. Patriarchy 101.
“Unsubmissive women,” Wilson has written, “are a truly destructive force.”
So, is this just another fundamentalist loon hearkening back to days when women were chattel, their entire status linked to their husbands, if they had one? Or is this the sign of a broader reassertion of the subservience of women, stealthily creeping into the mainstream?
In his book Federal Husband, Wilson argues that the first time a wife does not do the dishes, her husband should gently remind her, but if she ‘continues to rebel’, then he should call in the elders.”
So why hasn’t more been made of Hegseth’s admiration for Wilson?