As we revel in a bonus week of summer before Labor Day, I am all about reveling in the potential and power of everyday women’s voices and votes. Two important stories caught my eye this week that together pack a powerful punch.
First, a new poll showed that women’s support for President Trump — among voters of all political stripes — is tanking. A national survey of more than 1,600 women conducted by Bellwether Research and Consulting found that Trump’s approval rating hovers at 32 percent; even among women who voted for him, especially married women, one in four now disapprove of his leadership and policy priorities.
Specifically, 68 percent of all women surveyed oppose construction of the White House ballroom, with nearly half (43 percent) of Republican women agreeing. Other Trump administration priorities that face majority opposition are tariffs (63 percent), construction of data centers (61 percent), and childhood vaccine schedule changes (55 percent).
Meanwhile, concern about the economy appears to be far more important to women than the administration acknowledges: 38 percent of all women surveyed identified the “economy/cost of living” as the most important issue facing the country, followed by healthcare, Medicare, and Social Security. (Ranking at 11 percent were democracy, government, and the rule of law together; sigh, we have some work to do.)
The Contrarian has been reporting on political engagement of midlife and older women and tracking signs of potential for collective influence — things like the uptick in minivan-driving and married women who have formed frontlines against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and mobilized to thwart the SAVE Act, the Republican-sponsored voter suppression bill (that Trump is furious he can’t get the Senate to pass). By design, it would uniquely impact millions of women’s ability to register and cast a ballot — codifying the quiet part Trump administration officials have started saying out loud. I wrote at the time, “The writing is on the wall: These are voters who should be better understood and motivated to mobilize in 2026. Not because we desire the attention. (Lord knows we are used to being invisible! We like it that way. Trust us, it is a gift.). But because we may well be the ones best suited — in sagacity, in tenacity, in temperament — to help save democracy.”
But wait, the young are at the gates! Enter Daisy Chain Fields and 45,000 super fans (and many of their moms and dads) who gathered in Irvine, California, last weekend to sing and scream along with 23-year-old pop star Olivia Rodrigo, the event organizer, and a slew of other young artists — Grammy award winning- rapper Doechii and pop singer Chappell Roan, among many others — for an all-star, all-female line-up. Inspired by and in honor of its apparent Lilith Fair 1990s roots, Sarah McLachlan also took the stage, as did feminist-punk trailblazers Bikini Kill, Gen X icon Alanis Morissette, and every generation’s icon Stevie Nicks.
Daisy Chain Fields made clear it is about far more than music. It is a festival designed to create joy and communal experiences in support of women’s, reproductive, and LGBTQ rights. Ten non-profit groups selected by Rodrigo were on-site providing education and information — and on stage introducing the bands — enabling a new generation of activists to acquire the knowledge, tools, and confidence to step up in civic life.
Rodrigo quickly proved herself a deft organizer and potent philanthropist: she persuaded all of the talent to perform for free and donated the day’s proceeds, totaling $10 million, to the ten partner organizations: Baby2Baby, Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Center for Reproductive Rights, FreeFrom, Jhpiego, John Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Institute for Reproductive Health, National Women’s Law Center, and Planned Parenthood. At the end of the night, Melinda French Gates joined Rodrigo on stage to announce that her own philanthropy, Pivotal, would match every dollar raised, bringing the grand total to $20 million.
If you haven’t yet caught the wave of media coverage of Daisy Chain Fields, I urge you to take a look. The aesthetic alone will make you smile, I promise — even for those of us who wouldn’t go near the sweltering SoCal scene with a ten-foot pole. That’s me, and even so, I rejoiced in every second I followed along. From Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, one of several deliberate activations for festivalgoers — this one entailed writing a note on a paper slip and tying it to floral trees — to the hippie-dippy candy-colored peace button décor adorning the performance stages, who says activism can’t be in technicolor, marked by whimsy and joy?
This juxtaposition — older women responding to the dark deeds of the Trump administration, younger women’s communal celebration of reclaiming their rights — fills me with hope. If the work ahead is truly intergenerational, we can paint a future as bright as flowers. This is the essence of a daisy chain, after all — our stories, our dreams, our skills — woven together, draped over our shoulders, worn atop our heads as crowns.
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf is executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU School of Law. She also leads strategy and partnerships at Ms. Magazine.
I appreciate the coverage and the energy. Every woman should be an activist.
Onward!