TThis week, fundamentalist Christian pastor Dale Partridge argued in a series of tweets that “in a Christian marriage, a woman should vote according to her husband's instructions.” In other words, he pits his version of religion against the Constitution, which has guaranteed adult citizens the right to vote regardless of gender since the passage of the 19th Amendment 124 years ago. He argues that in marriage the husband annexes and owns his wife's vote and rights, effectively giving him two votes and her none. The right-wing extremist preacher is not alone in her argument that women should not have the right to participate in public life and to act according to their views and values.

Fox News personality Jesse Watters has argued that finding out his wife “went into the voting booth and pulled the lever for Harris” would be the same as having an affair. It violates “the sanctity of our marriage; What else is she hiding from me?” Right-wing agitator Charlie Kirk also bristled at the idea that women could vote according to their agenda rather than their husband’s.

These men warn about what awaits women who marry men like them. Perhaps it is worth noting at this point that right-wing opposition to same-sex marriage equality stems in part from their opposition to marriage equality within heterosexual marriage. They want marriage to be an inherently unequal relationship with a subordinate wife and an entitled husband, a cozy little authoritarian regime at home.

The 2024 US presidential election is, among other things, about whether or not women should be free and equal full citizens of this republic. Right now, this isn't the case for too many women – women in conservative states are denied reproductive rights, meaning they can control their own bodies and, in some cases, survive if an abortion or pregnancy becomes a medical emergency.

But there is another reason why women are not free and equal, which has been addressed in some videos and many tweets: women are afraid to vote for their chosen candidate if their husbands or boyfriends are Trump supporters and they are Harris Supporter. I wrote for the Guardian about how this fear and lack of freedom should be acknowledged, beyond simply reassuring women that they can vote secretly – at a polling station, if not at home.

But there's more to the story that confirms that many women have good reasons to fear their partners and hide their decisions. These MAGA men do not believe that wives and girlfriends should have the freedom to vote as they please, nor do they believe that wives and girlfriends should have the right to privacy in their political decisions. In other words, they don't believe she should have a choice. This amounts to not believing that she has rights, and if they don't believe that women have rights here, they don't believe that they have them in many areas.

This is consistent with the Republican Party's enthusiasm for abolishing reproductive rights, birth control, and no-fault divorce, as well as Vance's suggestion that women should stay in abusive marriages. Vance's campaign team said his comments were taken out of context. It fits with Trump's menacing campaign speech on Tuesday, in which he declared: “I want to protect the women of our country… I will do it whether the women like it or not.”

These are alarming words from a convicted rapist who is facing new charges of sexual assault against both former model Stacey Williams and beauty pageant contestant Beatrice Keul. Or not to engage with it, since none of these stories have received much attention and Trump's long history of convicted or alleged sexual abuse appears to have been accepted, denied, or both by his supporters.

This election is about many things, and one of them is whether women are endowed with certain inalienable rights.