Head-Of-Household Voting

By: Miriam Edelman

Head-of-household voting, which the Arizona Mirror referred to as “a fringe belief,” has been in the news quite a bit recently. According to the 19^th News, this practice “historically disenfranchised women and people of color by concentrating power on the male leaders of the home.” DCNOW’s blog piece, entitled “Major Female D.C. Government Elected Officials,” discussed head-of-household voting.

The national National Organization for Women (NOW) is a strong proponent of voting. On its website, NOW wrote:

“Voting is the foundation of our democracy. In today’s tumultuous political climate, protection of our access to the ballot remains as critical as ever. Over the past five years, voter suppression has manifested itself in a variety of ways, including racial and partisan gerrymandering, discriminatory voter ID laws, and the disenfranchisement of millions of voters. NOW is committed to advancing voting rights on both a state and federal level. We are dedicated to providing women–who are disproportionately affected by voter suppression–equal access to the ballot, and electing feminist candidates to office.”

Taking effect in 1789, the U.S. Constitution did not discuss much about who could vote. States were assigned the duty of deciding who could vote. The majority of states granted the right to vote to Caucasian male property owners. Over time, they allowed almost all Caucasian men to vote. The 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was the first federal document to label voters as male.

The 14^th Amendment states, in section 2:

“Section 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.”

According to Teaching Tolerance, women were excluded from voting from many states’ laws and from the 14^th Amendment because:

“The framers of the Constitution—and many who followed them for more than the next 100 years—believed that women were childlike and incapable of independent thought. They believed that women could not be counted on to vote responsibly.”

After women fought for the right to vote for decades, the 19^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution granted suffrage to women. Named for Susan B. Anthony, it was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and then ratified on August 18, 1920. The 19^th Amendment is:

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

Interestingly, before women gained the right to vote, in 1916, Jeannette Rankin (R-MT) was the first female elected to the U.S. Congress. She served two terms as a Representative: 1917-1919 and 1941- 1943.

Head-of-household voting found support in recent years. In 2018, a Republican county precinct chair wrote, “The more I study history the more I think giving voting rights to others not head of household has been a grave mistake!” In 2020, anti-abortion advocate Abby Johnson, who supports this sexist practice, spoke at the Republican National Convention. When asked what would occur if there were a Republican husband and a Democratic wife (or vice versa), Johnson replied, “Then they would have to decide on one vote. In a G-dly household, the husband would get the final say.” On August 7, 2025, on X, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reposted a video of Doug Wilson, a conservative pastor who believes that women should not have the right to vote. Wilson would like the 19^th Amendment to be repealed. In that video, Wilson said, “[w]omen are the kind of people that people come out of.” In Wilson’s vision of a Christian society, women as individuals would not vote. According to chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, “The Secretary [Hegseth] is a proud member of a church affiliated with the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), which was founded by Pastor Doug Wilson.” Parnell added, “The Secretary very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.” On August 14, 2025, the Pentagon clarified Hegseth’s views. Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said, “Of course, the secretary thinks that women should have the right to vote.”

The pending Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act) can be seen as a route to head-of-household voting. As was discussed in DCNOW’s blog post, entitled “DCNOW Opposes SAVE Act,” the SAVE Act will, as Congresswoman Ilan Omar (D-MN) wrote, “disenfranchise millions of voters, especially married women.”

In 2022, women lost the national right to an abortion via the overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade. Women must not also lose their right to vote. They need to keep their 19^th Amendment rights.