In a small Reformed church in Prescott, the former mining town of Arizona, a very radical current of conservative Christianity is openly testing an idea that could have been thought to be confined to the most masculinist fringes of the internet: revisiting women’s right to vote. Within the King’s Way Reformed Church, women wear a scarf tied permanently over their hair, a visible sign of “submission” to God and their husbands. Some, like 36-year-old Marybelle East, say they keep it “seven days a week” to show their husbands that they place themselves under his authority. In this patriarchal theology, the hierarchy is clear: the husband decides, the wife follows, politically included.
Leading this growing community is Pastor Dale Partridge, 40, based on the outskirts of Prescott, who preaches a return to “biblical patriarchy.” Highly followed on social media, he makes strong statements against feminists, LGBT people, immigration, Islam, or Hinduism, calling them “demonic,” and denounces women’s right to vote as one of the causes of American decline. His alternative: “household voting,” a vote per household, exercised by the sole male head of the family. The 19th amendment, which granted suffrage to American women in 1920, is presented as a historic turning point that set the country on the path of decline, as summarized by the New York Times.
A few years ago, admits Dale Partridge, delivering this discourse in public was like “being massacred.” But the idea is gaining ground today. In the ultra-conservative “manosphere,” influencers openly call for the repeal of the 19th amendment, and far-right activists take up the concept in the name of a return to traditional order.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared a video of pastors of his denomination advocating for the exclusion of women from the electoral body. Conservative podcaster Alex Clark explained that she “would see no problem” in only “the male head of the family” voting, while anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson has publicly supported the principle of a single vote per household.
In the vast majority of democracies, a retreat on universal suffrage seems inconceivable: repealing the 19th amendment would require the agreement of three-quarters of American states. Pastor Dale Partridge himself admits that this scenario is unlikely to succeed, but he claims to believe in progressive restrictions on women’s voting rights in certain conservative states, through technical or administrative measures. Opponents of the bill supported by Donald Trump that imposes proof of citizenship to register on voter rolls already warn that this reform could deprive women of voting rights if their marital name does not match their original documents.
Context: The article discusses a growing movement within a conservative church in Arizona that advocates for the repeal of women’s right to vote, citing it as a cause of American decline.
Fact Check: Women in the US were granted the right to vote with the 19th amendment in 1920, which cannot be easily repealed without significant legal and constitutional changes.
