To the editor:

‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’  This phrase, controversial to some, is embedded in our culture and had to do with spurious or unrequited love.  Whether or not the Republican establishment believes that is beside the point.  But they should believe this:

Hell will have no fury like women whose rights are shorn.  Through exceedingly committed effort and against nearly implacable male opposition, women won the right to vote.  Now, many women in disadvantaged situations are seeing barriers erected to suppress their votes.  Which political party is doing this?

We now watch as female contraceptives are blocked for Medicaid participants — and hoped to be blocked for all women.  Worse, much worse, is the assault on Roe v. Wade, likely to make all abortions illegal in America.  Which political party is doing this?

Female rights under attack merge with barriers to female leadership and power.  Women have long struggled for admittance to professional schools and at long last comprise significant numbers of lawyers, engineers, professors, and physicians.  Not so much with respect to corporate leadership or board memberships.  And males who dominate our legislatures will not vote for equal pay laws.  Which political party is doing this?

Most Americans wish for and expect one thing above all others, respect.  It took just a moment viewing C-Span’s coverage of her supreme court nomination hearing to see several Senate committee members viciously disrespect Judge Brown Jackson, an eminently qualified African-American female jurist.  Which political party is doing this?

There is a bi-partisan hue and cry in America’s government about the Taliban rolling back educational and employment opportunities for Afghan girls and women.  Yet, elected and appointed officials in Washington, D.C. and in many state capitals are working hard to relegate American women to second-class status.  (One wonders if their hypocrisy is based on fear or loathing, or maybe both.)  Which political party is doing this?

Women comprise more than half the electorate in America.  The political party that welcomes their leadership, supports their interests, cares for their families, and seeks to protect their rights is certainly not the party violating their rights and suppressing their votes.  

Will Newman

Tiverton