Women & Voting Rights: How New Laws Threaten Democracy

Since the founding of the United States, women’s crucial role in safeguarding democracy has often been overlooked—even as women have consistently worked to protect it, generation after generation.

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, shaping public life long after election cycles. For decades, American women have voted at higher rates than men in presidential elections.

Now, women’s voting rights are facing new challenges. A wave of restrictive voting laws, including federal legislation like the SAVE America Act and state-level measures, seek to impose new documentation requirements and bureaucratic hurdles that could disproportionately affect women—particularly the roughly 70 million married women whose names may not match their birth certificates, women of color who already face systemic barriers, and working mothers balancing careers, caregiving, 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 required ID is common among minorities, low-income voters, young people, seniors, and those facing economic barriers to obtaining documents. While framed as efforts to ensure “election integrity,” these measures are likely to narrow participation.

U.S. Elections are already particularly secure, with bipartisan safeguards, paper ballot backups, and post-election audits consistently confirming the integrity of the system. Adding unnecessary barriers risks undermining voter confidence rather than strengthening it.

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, efforts to undermine ballot access have evolved. Current proposals reflect this history, including restricting mail-in voting, reducing early voting hours, and requiring additional documentation to register. These policies can fall hardest on those with the least flexibility.

For married women who have changed their names, new proof-of-citizenship requirements could create additional barriers.

When policymakers produce it harder to vote, they choose whose voices matter. A democracy that functions conveniently only for the unencumbered is not a true democracy.

Restricting voting access can negatively impact voters of all political persuasions. Protecting voting access is essential for our democracy. But People can also recognize that women’s civic engagement has long unsettled powerful men. From the suffrage movement to today’s debates over voting access, expanding democracy has required women to confront entrenched power.

Across the country, women are building bipartisan coalitions and filing litigation to challenge unlawful barriers. They are serving as poll workers and election observers to ensure elections run smoothly, and organizing locally and nationally to defend democratic norms.

History shows that efforts to suppress participation often spark greater civic engagement. In 1965, the violence against peaceful voting rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge 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 took to the streets in 2017 for the Women’s March, one of the largest demonstrations in American history.

When women participate in political life—as voters, candidates, and decision-makers—institutions become more representative and responsive. Democracy is stronger when it reflects the full breadth of lived experience.