“If I perish, I perish.” — the chant Katie Gaddini heard from Esther’s Army at the National Mall, weeks before the 2024 election

Back in 2021, at the height of the pandemic, Margaret Atwood came on the show to talk about The Handmaid’s Tale — her warning of how trad wives, to borrow a contemporary phrase, could be exploited by an evangelical patriarchy. Five years later, the Stanford fellow Katie Gaddini offers a strikingly different vision. Her new book, Esther’s Army: The Christian Women Who Power the American Right (out today), is the product of nine years of research and over 100 interviews with conservative Christian women across 28 states.

These women, this army of Esthers, are not handmaidens, Gaddini concludes. “They are very much in charge. They are politically engaged. They, in many cases, hold political positions of power.”

Gaddini grew up as an evangelical — her father a pastor, with four more pastors in her extended family. She voted for George Bush “naturally,” before discovering she could be a Christian and not a Republican. But she is less a rebel against her upbringing as much as a sociologist with a Cambridge doctorate.

She was living in London when Trump won the 2016 nomination and wondered how it was that Christian women were planning to vote for this most imperfect of men? Nine years and 100 interviews later, the answer turns out to be more complicated than the standard liberal media exploitation tale about handmaids.

The book’s title comes from the women themselves. At a 250,000-person rally on the National Mall weeks before the 2024 election, Gaddini saw women wearing gold-plated Esther necklaces, chanting “If I perish, I perish” from the Book of Esther. Gaddini interprets this as a striking theological shift — away from the forgiveness of the New Testament toward the Manichaean Old Testament narrative of violence, destruction, and an imperfect male figure designed by God to redeem the rest of us. Donald Trump, in this telling, is King David. Or Jehu.

Margaret Atwood better watch out. This Army of Esthers are warriors, not handmaidens, and they are preparing for an apocalyptical war. If you perish, you perish. Another Old Testament-style pandemic.

Five Takeaways

• Not Handmaids: Trad Wives Are a Tiny, Overhyped Fringe. Only one of 100+ interviewees follows a trad wife online. The women Gaddini studied are diehard MAGA supporters spanning homeschool moms to Heritage Foundation lawyers to White House staff. Politically engaged, not passive.

• The Hidden History. Women built the conservative movement since the 1970s. Reagan-era women drafted legislation still shaping policy. Schlafly was not an aberration but part of coordinated networks. Books on the Christian right have largely written women out.

• Conservative Feminism. A more nuanced relationship with feminism than expected. Some reject it; others embrace a self-styled ‘conservative feminism’ that reframes reproductive rights and capitalism as women’s issues benefiting conservative families.

• If I Perish, I Perish. At a 250,000-person National Mall rally, women wore gold Esther necklaces and chanted Esther’s line. The theological shift: away from Jesus, toward Old Testament violence and imperfect male figures — Trump as King David or Jehu. Warriors, not handmaidens.

• The Fracture Lines. Iran strikes alienated isolationist Trump voters. MAHA women — anti-vax homeschool moms and liberal Bay Area mothers — are furious about pesticide rollbacks. Trump’s Jesus-styled selfie didn’t land. Nobody thinks he’s a good Christian. His policies align with their vision. That’s what matters.

About the Guest

Katie Gaddini is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and Associate Professor of Sociology at UCL. She is the author of Esther’s Army (W.W. Norton, June 30, 2026) and The Struggle to Stay.

References

Esther’s Army by Katie Gaddini (W.W. Norton, June 30, 2026): wwnorton.com/books/9781324123767
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
Arlie Russell Hochschild, Stolen Pride

About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.

Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow

Chapters:

00:00:31 Margaret Atwood and Esther’s Army
00:02:32 Trad wives are a tiny fringe
00:03:41 Katie’s background: growing up evangelical
00:06:06 Are these women feminists?
00:10:42 Phyllis Schlafly was not an aberration
00:14:02 Race, class, and gains with Latina voters
00:21:44 The fracture lines: Iran, evangelicals, the Jesus image
00:24:56 If I perish, I perish
00:25:17 MAHA women and the RFK Jr. fracture
00:31:59 Old Testament over New Testament