I wholeheartedly consider myself a feminist. Like most feminists, I believe that a woman's life and body is her domain and her domain alone. The women's movement fights so hard for the right to safe, legal abortion and reproductive rights, I wonder why birth choice and advocacy for mothers doesn't seem to be on the agenda.
It feels so often that because I choose to dedicate my life to motherhood and family my feminism is automatically called into question. I would never challenge the validity or value of a woman's choice of a life dedicated to career, political service, activism, or the pursuit of knowledge. I don't understand what so threatens someone else's feminist ideals to see a strong, intelligent woman take on, happily and by choice, a traditional 'female' role. I'm not subservient, I have not lost my identity, and my position is not less than anyone else's.
Would anyone attack a daycare worker or a preschool teacher's position as running counter to feminism? Then why when I take on that same work and more am I looked down on? Is it because I don't get a paycheck? Is it because I'm caring for and teaching things to my own child and not someone else's? Am I the only one who fails to find the logic?
I wish that these women who will speak out and march to protect a woman's right to continue or end a pregnancy on her own terms would also be willing to fight for a woman's right to birth on her own terms. It feels like once a woman chooses to continue a pregnancy, she falls off the radar. What, now that I've decided to become a mother it's becomes perfectly fine to subject me to the ever-changing whims of a male-dominated medical establishment? The journey to motherhood should be empowering and strengthening, not an excuse to disavail me of my rights to have full authority over what happens to my body.
When's the march for that?
It feels so often that because I choose to dedicate my life to motherhood and family my feminism is automatically called into question. I would never challenge the validity or value of a woman's choice of a life dedicated to career, political service, activism, or the pursuit of knowledge. I don't understand what so threatens someone else's feminist ideals to see a strong, intelligent woman take on, happily and by choice, a traditional 'female' role. I'm not subservient, I have not lost my identity, and my position is not less than anyone else's.
Would anyone attack a daycare worker or a preschool teacher's position as running counter to feminism? Then why when I take on that same work and more am I looked down on? Is it because I don't get a paycheck? Is it because I'm caring for and teaching things to my own child and not someone else's? Am I the only one who fails to find the logic?
I wish that these women who will speak out and march to protect a woman's right to continue or end a pregnancy on her own terms would also be willing to fight for a woman's right to birth on her own terms. It feels like once a woman chooses to continue a pregnancy, she falls off the radar. What, now that I've decided to become a mother it's becomes perfectly fine to subject me to the ever-changing whims of a male-dominated medical establishment? The journey to motherhood should be empowering and strengthening, not an excuse to disavail me of my rights to have full authority over what happens to my body.
When's the march for that?