motherhood is political

thoughts from a stay-at-home mama

katie novotny

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Let me introduce myself.

I am a mother.
I am a feminist.

I believe the two can coexist, and I am proof of it. I have always been a feminist, but now that I am a mama, being a feminist is more important than ever.

I have chosen to stay home with my baby. There are many negative attitudes towards mamas who stay home, especially from women. Why is it that raising a child is so important, yet staying home with your children is belittled? Raising our children, the next generation, is very important.

We need to support our stay-at- home mamas and let them know they are important. Not only do I change diapers and do housework, I am politically active and participate in my community. I am more than just a housewife, I am:

a mentor
a diplomat,
a friend,
a teacher,
an accountant,
a gourmet cook,
and a philosopher.

I don't need to have a career outside of the home to prove that I have something valid to say. I can be a mother and a feminist.

As a feminist mother, I am also concerned with the way women, birth, and breast-feeding are treated in both the medical community and in our society.

Women who breast-feed their children are less likely to get breast cancer and uterine cancer. Breast-milk is the most nutritious food for children, and yet society treats breast-feeding as a taboo. If you are caught breast-feeding in public, shame on you. But if you are waving your breasts around to titillate men, then hooray! Also, it isn’t just men who harbor negative views, women can be just as demeaning. We need to support breast-feeding mamas, not shame them.

Childbirth is treated as a medical illness. It is not an illness, it is a beautiful experience that should be courageously embraced. As you bring your beautiful child into this world, you make a transition from being a woman to a mother.

What’s more, midwives are treated like they are witches using voodoo magic, instead of professionals who have helped millions of women give birth. We should support midwives, and women who choose to use a midwife, rather than a doctor.

Third wave feminists should support stay-at-home mamas because motherhood is an important aspect of both feminism and the feminist movement. Being a mother is part of being a woman, and raising our children is an important job. Women have fought to have equality with men in the workplace. Now we need to fight to have the respect that stay-at-home mothers deserve. In the coming months I will discuss breast-feeding, birth, stay at home vs. working mamas, and much more. These issues, in one way or another, have affected all of us, and I would like to bring them to the forefront of third wave feminism.

Check out Feminist Mothers at Home, an email discussion group, which is comprised of over 100 women from all over the world who are choosing to make mothering their career while still calling themselves "feminist."

© Katie Novotny, 2001
All Rights Reserved

 site map   |  volume 1 number 2, June 2001