Esther's Army

How and why right-wing Christian women have risen to the forefront of American politics.

For decades, conservative Christian women have been dismissed as naive and brainwashed, victims of political coercion by the men in their lives. Yet that narrative doesn’t explain how they have also become some of the most influential political organizers of our time: the backbone of the modern conservative movement whose strategic efforts over the past six decades have culminated in the 2024 election of Donald Trump.

To understand this unique and growing political force, sociologist Katie Gaddini conducted over ten years of ethnographic research, interviewing key players in the field and joining them across the country as they organized, rallied, and celebrated. As a former evangelical, Gaddini speaks the language of the Christian Right fluently and 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 gender initiatives.

Observing Christian women’s activism from grassroots networks to conservative universities to public politics and jobs at the White House—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. The result is a sweeping portrait of the women shaping the political future of the United States.