How will Trump’s Toxic Patriarchy Affect Mothers and Daughters?

On November 5, 2024, when America elected Donald Trump to be president again, I was in Florida presenting at the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) conference about how to understand and heal generational trauma between mothers and daughters. As I talked about the emotional and relational harm patriarchy inflicts on mothers and daughters, how it inflicts generational trauma and causes mother-daughter conflict, the synchronistic timing of this message wasn’t lost on me. Nor was it lost on the packed room of mostly women who attended my talk. One woman bravely put up her hand and voiced the elephant in the room by asking how the election would impact the mother-daughter relationship. I responded by saying, “The election will have a direct impact on mothers and daughters because patriarchy is on trial today”. And patriarchy won!

There are a lot of theories being discussed about how a misogynistic, racist, convicted felon won the presidency again. And all these conversations are important. But there is a more important conversation that is begging to be discussed. We must talk about how deeply and intensely patriarchal American society is! Patriarchal thinking is often seen as a choice, as something you can opt out of. But that isn’t true. Patriarchy is the rule of law in America! It is the belief system every…