Donald Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) is once again facing criticism over comments he made about women without children.
In a podcast interview from 2021, Vance said professional women who prioritize work over having children “choose a path to misery,” according to The Guardian.
Vance said of women like his classmates at Yale Law School that “pursuing racial or gender equity is like the value system that gives their life meaning … [but] they all find that that value system leads to misery”.
Vance’s comment is the latest in a long line of controversial statements targeting women and family.
In 2021, Vance called women without biological children “childless cat ladies” with “no direct stake” in America.
Vance also called for tax penalties for people without children and even suggested giving extra votes to people with children.
“Vance represents a new articulation of rightwing politics that is bridging the Christian right and a tech-influenced hypermasculine conservatism,” Sophie Bjork-James, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University told the Guardian.
“He appeals to evangelicals with the message that we find happiness by fulfilling traditional gender roles, which is a cornerstone of white evangelical Christianity. He also speaks to a misogynist trend emerging out of the tech world among people who would prefer not to talk about any kind of diversity at all,” Bjork-James continued.
“What they share is the view that women shouldn’t be in paid work: they should be in the home and rearing children. But the public line isn’t ‘we hate women’, it’s ‘women will be happier if they stay at home’,” she added.
