Femininity, womanhood, girl power, whatever one wants to call it, it’s a central force shaping Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) AmericaFest and by extension the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
The conservative organization’s event of the year was expected to attract around 30,000 attendees, and 54 percent of them women, TPUSA CEO Erika Kirk said on opening night on December 18, a significant number for what was once viewed a young men’s org.
Trump’s 2024 election victory saw his support among 18- to 29-year-old voters jump 11 percent from 2020, as he won 47 percent of the demographic. That came in large part due to outreach to young, white men. Trump carried 63 percent of that vote while his next two highest demographics among 18- to 29-year-olds were Latino men and white women, of which he received 49 percent each.
Given that TPUSA attendees represent some of the most passionate supporters of the Republican Party, the turnout of women at AmericaFest doesn’t necessarily signal a shift among the general public. However, it does show the organization is expanding its appeal and offers some signs of the message conservatives are tailoring to reach the next generation of women.
“Feminism promised empowerment. But you know what it delivered? It delivered emptiness,” conservative activist Riley Gaines said in her night three address. “It sold women the lie that children are burdens, that family is a limitation, and that fulfillment comes from self-centered autonomy rather than self-giving love.”
Gaines rise to prominence came as an NCAA All American Swimmer with the University of Kentucky when in the 200-yard freestyle championship she tied with trans swimmer Lia Thomas. She spoke out against the inclusion of trans women in sports and has since leveraged the notoriety she received into a career in conservative activism.
Her speech, where Gaines warned that “that gender ideology is an evil lie from the pit of hell,” mirrored other speeches over the weekend by prominent conservative women. They disavowed liberal feminism, spoke against transgender people, and stressed the importance of raising children. Oftentimes, relaying these messages through a creationist perspective.
Some speakers signaled feelings that American society and its institutions had either neglected or become openly hostile to women who embrace traditional femineity. Savannah Chrisley, who starred alongside her wealthy family in the USA Network reality show Chrisley Knows Best, said in the first two minutes of her speech that she wouldn’t spend too much time on the subject but: “I could remind the media again that there are only two genders.”
“Women like Riley Gaines, Savannah Chrisley, and Erika Kirk have really helped women become empowered and interested in politics, and I really look up to all of them, and I think they have a lot to do with all the women who are here,” Samantha Fulnecky, a student at the University of Oklahoma, told Newsweek.
Fulnecky recently captured national headlines after she received a 0 out of 25 on her essay responding to an academic study on the role of gender norms where she argued: “Women naturally want to do womanly things because God created us with those womanly desires in our hearts. The same goes for men.”
Turning Point USA amplified the incident, and Fulnecky said Gaines invited her to the event. While members of her family are politically active, Fulnecky said she resisted getting too involved in politics, but the incident in class inspired her to become more engaged.
Religion a Key Factor
Other women I spoke to said they were excited to see their gender so prominently represented at the event. Nearly all of them, like Fulnecky, spoke about the importance of religion in shaping their views on femininity and felt their beliefs reflected “true feminism” because of the biblical interpretations of womanhood they were practicing
However, it wasn’t just women who spoke on these issues, but men, ranging from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to police officer turned podcaster Brandon Tatum and many in between, emphasized the importance of traditional womanhood and spoke against transgender people.
Around the convention center, I saw private breastfeeding tents for nursing mothers, and a private room designated for mothers to attend to their children. I routinely saw women walking between events with young kids, some even holding babies.
In 2024, Trump won 55 percent of men, but Kamala Harris won 53 percent of women. Simultaneously, after years of decline the percentage of Christians in the country has leveled out around 60 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.
America remains majority Christian, but not all Christian women appear to align with the conservative values being amplified at Turning Point. However, it’s clear that TPUSA and AmericaFest have inspired a segment of women to engage with politics in a visible way that they were not necessarily engaging before.
The extent to which this brand of feminism lands with women in the seven swing states remains uncertain. However, AmericaFest has revealed it to be near certain that the misogynist wing of the GOP, exemplified by Nick Fuentes, holds little to no true influence in the MAGA movement and the Republican Party.
“The [54 percent total] rebukes the misogynist claims about women, how women should not be involved in politics,” Sara Barahman, a student at Pepperdine University, told Newsweek. “If anyone on the right does hold that view, I don’t think they represent the conservative movement, and I don’t think they represent Christianity at all.”
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