Perspective: ‘Life before suffrage’ — what Jason Whitlock got wrong
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I don’t watch ESPN, so Jason Whitlock was not a familiar name. However, at a recent conservative conference in Arizona sponsored by Turning Point USA, the former sportscaster offered some provocative commentary about the natural order of families and why it doesn’t matter if everyone gets a vote.
While I have seen troll-like comments advancing the same point in the past, this is the first time to my knowledge that this argument was made from a national conservative platform.
After expounding — rightly — on how women “had the greatest responsibility that God has given” to be mothers and nurture children, Whitlock then seemed to suggest that those who were given this greatest responsibility were not necessarily those who should help govern societies.
In remarks pounced upon by liberal outlets like Media Matters, Whitlock said:
“They have recreated this history that ... it was all just sexism, and we didn’t have the right to vote until Susan B. Anthony and the women’s suffrage movement. And I will defend life before suffrage. Because a vote used to represent the family. When we were a culture that really valued family and really understood the natural order that God intended — man serving God, woman following man who serves God, man and woman developing and nurturing children — you only needed one vote per household because that vote was about the entire family.”
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He went on: “As they have destroyed our family structure and made this all an individual pursuit, not everybody has to have a vote. And everybody has an agenda that a lot of times has nothing to do with family; the risk and the sacrifices that men made for the advancement of this country and for the benefit of all of us.”
There’s a lot to unpack here and not all of it coheres well. What is clear, however, is the suggestion that the advancement of women has not been good for society.
Men have indeed made risks and sacrifices for the advancement of this country. But, at least in U.S. history, it was women who led the fight against child marriage. It was women who led the fight against child labor. It was women who led the fight against prostitution and trafficking. It was women who led the fight against inhumane working conditions. It was women who led the fight against alcohol. It was women who led the fight for social welfare to needy families. It seems to me that these causes strengthened the family. So while it is true that men and women in good marriages might think enough alike to favor the same policies, it is clear from this overview of U.S. history that they did not — and that families should be grateful for women’s voice.
Furthermore, it is indisputable that women have made equivalent and at times even greater sacrifices than men “for the advancement of this country and for the benefit of all of us.” If we look merely at lives lost to preserve the country, far more women have died incident to pregnancy and childbirth than the number of men that have died fighting in combat.
Throughout this speech there is an undertext suggesting that giving women the vote has led to the legalization of abortion; we see it in the sentence, “And I will defend life before suffrage.” This is ironic, because the first wave of feminists staunchly opposed abortion and laid responsibility for it at the feet of promiscuous men and rapists. Even today, there is an important argument to be made that it is a lack of sexual integrity among some men that underlies most abortions. Most voters, even in red states in the post-Dobbs era, understand this, and have rebuked at the ballot box legislatures that do not provide exemptions for rape or incest or serious maternal health consequences.
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Research has shown that decision-making groups made up of both men and women produce significantly better decisions. Well-functioning families already know this. Family values are not mutually exclusive with the progress that women have made, for themselves and for the country.
How grateful we should all be to our foremothers who fought so hard for the vote. They were wise; they were prophetic. They could foresee a time when it might be only women’s votes that stood between families and calamity. These wise women would no doubt be politically homeless today, caught between the extremes of the left and the right, each of which purposes to destroy women’s hard-fought rights, albeit in very different ways.
Valerie M. Hudson is a university distinguished professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University and a Deseret News contributor. Her views are her own.
