The presidential race’s gender dynamics have dramatically transformed in recent weeks—not only because a woman will almost certainly lead the Democratic presidential ticket, but also because the GOP chose a vice presidential candidate outspoken about his notions regarding family formation and women’s societal roles.

President Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid earlier this month, and Vice President Kamala Harris’s subsequent ascension, means that there will likely be a woman facing Trump for the second time in the last three elections, going back to 2016 when Hillary Clinton carried the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College. This November will no longer offer the expected rematch of the 2020 election, between two older white men. Instead it’s one older white man and a Gen X woman of Jamaican and Indian heritage—once again raising questions of what women, and particularly women of color, can achieve in the United States.

“When you are a Black woman running for office in a high-level leadership position, there is this trope of the ‘angry Black woman,’” said Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, describing the “tightrope” that Harris must walk: not bowing to “bullying” pressure while also not seeming aggressive.

But if Harris will need to avoid appearing too angry, masculine outrage is one of Trump’s campaign strengths. Trump embodies a particular expression of masculinity, one that emphasizes macho toughness and even anger. His choice of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate reinforces that vision of not only a man’s role in society but expectations of women.

“He has otherized women throughout his political career,” Walsh said of Trump. “He has questioned their place in politics … always implying they’re not smart enough, they’re not supposed to be there, this isn’t their space.” By portraying himself as Trump’s successor—and by extension the future of the Republican Party—Vance is indicating that “men belong here” in the political sphere, while “women do not,” Walsh said.

The choice of Vance could appeal to young men, who increasingly lean toward Republicans. The Republican National Convention’s macho trappings—including celebrity wrestler Hulk Hogan praising Trump as “the toughest of them all” and Trump walking onstage on the final night to the song “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”—presented a vision of a masculine party that could engage........

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