A Conversation with Katie Gaddini, author of Esther’s Army: The Christian Women Who Power the American Right
Part of the Feminism in Theory and Practice Series, presented by the Clayman Institute for Gender Research.
Join us for a conversation with Writer in Residence Moira Donegan and sociologist Katie Gaddini as they discuss how and why right-wing, Christian women have risen to the forefront of American politics.
The 2024 election of Donald Trump was the culmination of the strategic efforts of Christian women over six decades. Gaddini was with them as they organized, rallied, and celebrated. As a former evangelical, Gaddini speaks the language of the Christian Right fluently. In Esther’s Army, she profiles six distinct archetypes: college idealists, anti-feminist powerhouses, Black conservatives, MAHA social media influencers, white suburbanites, and “mama bears” marching on state capitols to ban books and influence gender policy. Observing Christian women’s activism from grassroots networks to conservative academies and law school to public politics and jobs at the White House today – as they borrow feminist rhetoric to “lean in” to their executive skills while rejecting liberal feminism – Gaddini reveals how these women have turned being underestimated into a strategic force.
Gaddini is a visiting scholar at Stanford University; an associate professor of sociology at the Social Research Institute, University College London; and a research associate at the University of Johannesburg, Department of Sociology. Her book, Esther’s Army: The Christian Women Who Power the American Right, on Christian women and conservative politics from 1970 to present is based on more than 10 years of ethnographic research. Her debut book, The Struggle to Stay: Why Single Evangelical Women are Leaving the Church, was based on more than four years of in-depth ethnographic research with single, evangelical women in the U.S. and U.K. She is the co-host of the podcast Blessed & Stressed: Religion and Politics Across the Pond. Katie holds master’s degrees from Boston College and the London School of Economics, and a PhD in Sociology from University of Cambridge. She currently lives in California.