A growing number of Republican women in the House are voicing frustration with Speaker Mike Johnson, citing what they describe as marginalization and unequal treatment. Though many of these lawmakers are staunch conservatives, they say they are being sidelined in leadership roles and key policy fights, exposing tensions within a narrowly divided GOP conference.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing criticism from several Republican women in the House over what they describe as unequal treatment and limited opportunities under his leadership.
On a recent podcast, Johnson’s wife, Kelly Johnson, recounted that her husband often says, “Men and women are different in… that men can compartmentalize things.” She then likened men’s brains to waffles and women’s to spaghetti, a metaphor reflecting a gender-essentialist view of how men and women think. The Nation has highlighted this episode as emblematic of Johnson’s broader approach to gender and power within the GOP caucus.
According to The Nation, there are currently 33 Republican women serving in the House, yet none hold an elected committee chair position; one woman holds a more ceremonial committee gavel. These figures have fueled complaints from some female Republicans who argue they are running into a glass ceiling despite the party’s public emphasis on elevating women. NBC News separately notes that while Johnson has appointed Representative Virginia Foxx to lead the Rules Committee and created certain posts for women, there remain no women serving as elected committee chairs.
One of Johnson’s most outspoken critics on this front is Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has announced plans to resign from Congress. As quoted by The Nation, she has complained that “there’s a lot of weak Republican men” who are “afraid” and “always try to marginalize the strong Republican women.” Greene’s comments capture a broader sense of grievance among some conservative women who say they are loyal to the party’s agenda but feel blocked from advancing within it.
Johnson’s majority is historically slim: Republicans currently hold 220 seats in the House, just two more than the 218 required to control the chamber. As The Nation notes, that narrow margin heightens the potential impact of internal dissent, particularly from members who are willing to break with leadership on high-profile issues.
Disputes between Johnson and several Republican women have broken into the open. The Nation reports that Johnson has clashed with Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, and Lauren Boebert—along with Representative Thomas Massie—over efforts to force the release of records related to Jeffrey Epstein. The magazine also notes that Johnson has been at odds with Representatives Anna Paulina Luna and Elise Stefanik over a proposed ban on congressional stock trading, with Luna in particular pressing to move the legislation more quickly.
Another flashpoint has been the handling of allegations against Republican Representative Cory Mills. NBC News reports that eight Republicans, including six women—Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Anna Paulina Luna, Kat Cammack, and Harriet Hageman—joined Democrats in opposing a GOP motion to block a resolution to censure Mills over alleged misconduct toward women. A judge granted a restraining order sought by an ex-girlfriend who alleged harassment and threats, while Mills has denied wrongdoing and vowed to cooperate with a House Ethics investigation.
Even some of Johnson’s allies have chafed at what they perceive as condescension. The Nation points to an instance in which Johnson, praising GOP conference chair and ally Representative Lisa McClain, said she was the person he would most trust to prepare Thanksgiving dinner—an example critics cite as reinforcing traditional gender roles rather than acknowledging women as political peers.
Concerns extend beyond day-to-day interactions. NBC News has reported that several high-profile Republican women are planning to leave the House—by resigning, retiring, or seeking other offices—raising fears within the party that the number of GOP women could decline in the next Congress. Two House Republican women, speaking to NBC on condition of anonymity, said they felt passed over for opportunities and believed their priorities were not taken as seriously under Johnson’s speakership, sentiments The Nation cites as evidence of a growing revolt.
Defenders of Johnson reject the suggestion that he is sidelining women. NBC News reports that a spokesman for the speaker’s political operation has argued that Johnson has elevated women in leadership and actively recruited female candidates in competitive races. Yet a separate account, cited by The Nation from The New York Times, quotes a senior Republican aide—speaking anonymously—who said that after Johnson gave Elise Stefanik office space and a budget for what the aide described as “a fake job and a fake title,” he expected her to be more appreciative. Critics seized on that remark as evidence of a dismissive attitude toward women in leadership.
The Nation situates these internal House fights within a broader conservative backlash against women’s gains in the workplace. The magazine notes that the Heritage Foundation recently hired Scott Yenor to lead the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies; Yenor has argued that employers should be allowed to hire only male heads of households to support “traditional family life” and has praised what he calls a “heroic feminine” focused on motherhood and wifely roles.
The article also points to a wider ecosystem of right-wing commentary questioning women’s place in professional life. In an October piece for Compact, writer Helen Andrews warned of what she termed “the Great Feminization” of workplaces, arguing that women are less capable of rational, disinterested thought and asserting that men are better at compartmentalizing—language that echoes the waffle-and-spaghetti metaphor embraced by Johnson and his wife. The transcript of Andrews’s interview with columnist Ross Douthat in The New York Times initially ran under the headline “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?” before being changed to the less provocative “Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?”
Together, these developments have left the House GOP confronting an unusual internal rift: conservative women who often oppose feminist policies are now publicly objecting to what they view as entrenched sexism within their own ranks. While Johnson and his allies insist they are promoting women and expanding their influence, the mounting criticism from within his conference suggests that many female Republicans feel their ambitions, and their concerns, remain secondary.
