How the Trump Administration Is Downgrading Women's Citizenship

"When people think of "women's issues," they tend to think of abortion, childcare, or day-to-day costs of living. But these issues are defined by who has political centrality and how we define citizenship.Historically, citizenship has been defined in patriarchal terms and activated by conformity to colonial, white, and hegemonic masculine norms. Trump's policies don't only reflect this legacy; they are restoring it."

"There is perhaps no more obvious example than the overhaul of the "Department of War." There is no notion of citizenship embraced by this administration that isn't grounded in martial manhood, which it materially and symbolically pursued by purging experienced women and minority leaders, expelling trans service members, wiping public records of diverse histories, and reestablishing cis-male bodily standards to ensure superior "readiness and lethality.""

"As is the case across issues, these changes are predicated on inelastic gender roles that standardize policy around men-ideally white, cis, and heterosexual-granting them greater status, political influence, and a monopoly on violence. Doing this stigmatizes femininity and people associated with femininity-women, LGBTQ people, and racial minorities-making their rights negotiable, their safety contingent, and their citizenship conditional on the desires of cis het men."

The administration has narrowed whom it protects through policies including ICE deportations, dismantling DEI, criminalizing pregnancy, and rolling back environmental protections. Gender often determines who bears risks, absorbs costs, and is held responsible for market and state failures. Policies are especially harrowing for women and for people who cannot or will not conform to rigid gender norms. Definitions of women's issues hinge on political centrality and the prevailing definition of citizenship. Citizenship has historically been defined by patriarchal, colonial, white, and hegemonic masculine norms, and current policies restore martial, masculine conceptions of citizenship across institutions. These changes stigmatize femininity and make rights, safety, and citizenship conditional.

Read at The Nation