Since the founding of the United States of America, women’s central role in safeguarding democracy has been overlooked—even as women have consistently, generation after generation, worked to protect it.
Even before women had the right to vote, they organized national suffrage campaigns, raised funds for reform movements through organized philanthropy, and built civic institutions like women’s clubs, which shaped public life long after election cycles. Despite being chronically underrepresented in local and federal government, American women have voted at higher rates than men in presidential elections for decades.
Now, women’s voting rights are at risk. And I would argue that they are at risk because of our participation in democracy.
Across the country, federal legislation such as the SAVE America Act and a wave of state-level restrictive voting laws seek to impose new documentation requirements and bureaucratic hurdles which threaten to disproportionately affect women—especially the nearly 70 million married women whose names may not match their birth certificates, women of color who already face systemic barriers, and working mothers balancing their careers, caregiving responsibilities, and civic participation.
Research from the Brennan Center and the U.S. Government Accountability Office shows that overly burdensome photo ID requirements can block eligible citizens from voting. A lack of the required ID is particularly common among minorities, low-income voters, young people, seniors, and those facing economic barriers to obtaining documents. For this reason, while voting document measures are often framed as efforts to ensure “election integrity,” they are likely to narrow participation in practice.
Research consistently shows that U.S. elections are already very secure, with bipartisan safeguards, paper ballot backups, and post-election audits that consistently confirm the integrity of our system. Efforts that add unnecessary barriers risk undermining voter confidence rather than strengthening it.
Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, efforts to undermine ballot access have evolved rather than disappeared—from polling place closures and voter roll purges to restrictive photo ID laws and reductions in early voting. Current proposals reflect this history.
Restricting mail-in voting, reducing early voting hours, or requiring additional documentation to register may sound technical and, on its face, maybe even fair ways to ensure credible elections. But dig deeper, and you see that these policies can fall hardest on those with the least flexibility—women working hourly jobs, caring for children or aging parents, or living far from government offices. For married women who have changed their names, new proof-of-citizenship requirements could create additional barriers.
When policymakers make it harder to vote, they choose whose voices matter. Democracy that functions conveniently only for the unencumbered is not a true democracy.
To be sure, restricting voting access can negatively impact voters of all political persuasions. We must protect voting access and our democracy on behalf of all Americans.
But we can also recognize that women’s civic engagement has long unsettled powerful men. From the suffrage movement and the civil rights era to today’s debates over voting access, expanding democracy has required women to confront entrenched power. And we are not retreating.
Across the country, women are building bipartisan coalitions and filing litigation to challenge unlawful barriers. We are serving as poll workers and election observers to ensure elections run smoothly. We are organizing locally and nationally to defend democratic norms.
History shows that efforts to suppress participation often spark greater civic engagement. In 1965, when peaceful voting rights marchers were violently attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on what became known as Bloody Sunday, the nation responded with outrage that helped propel the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and dramatically expanded voter registration across the South. More than 50 years later, millions of women and their allies again took to the streets in 2017 for the Women’s March, one of the largest demonstrations in American history. When Americans believe their rights, or their democracy, are under threat, participation does not shrink. It grows.
When women participate in political life—as voters, candidates, and decision-makers—institutions become more representative and responsive. Public trust grows. Policy debates expand to reflect the realities of families and communities. Democracy is stronger when it reflects the full breadth of lived experience.
The future of American democracy depends not on restricting participation but on expanding it—on welcoming more voices, not fewer. Women, particularly women of color, have always been central to that work, even when the spotlight failed to acknowledge them.
Those who underestimate women’s civic power will discover, as history has shown time and time again, democracy’s most resilient defenders are often the ones who have had to fight hardest to claim their place within it.
