Motherhood and Feminism

In honor of International Women's Day (which was actually earlier this month), I'd like to write about a topic that recently came to my attention via the Ms. Magazine blog. The title of the post is "The Future of Feminism: Not Your Ordinary Mother’s Blog," and I was kind of shocked when I read it. The article discusses Mommy Bloggers and how women are blogging about their experiences with motherhood from a feminist perspective. It seems from the article that Mommy Bloggers being feminists would be a shock, and even one comment after the article says, "I find this refreshing because we almost never connect feminism with the joys of motherhood." So, why was I shocked? Well, to me, it's so obvious that a person could be both a feminist and a mother, and those two, for me, are deeply tied to each other. In fact, so much of what I've written about speaks to being a feminist mom. 

Let's make this a little clearer. What is a feminist? The definition of "feminism" (as defined by Merriam-Webster) is: "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes". And, I happen to like Dictionary.com's definition even better: "advocating social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men." So, the way I look at it, a feminist is simply someone (man or woman) who wants all women and men to be equal, to have the same rights, and to be treated with equal respect. Feminism is just as much a men's issue as it is a women's issue. 

The next question is: how is feminism connected to motherhood? Well, I think a better question is how is it NOT connected? A woman writing about her feelings as a mom opens up so many topics that are at the heart of feminism: stay-at-home vs. working, breastfeeding or not, how responsibilities are divided between parents, raising feminist children, avoiding gender stereotyping with your kids, etc. 

Now, while my initial reaction was one of confusion and concern that Mommy Bloggers and feminism seemed unconnected to each other, I also had a very positive reaction to this article. I love that women (and men) are blogging about their experiences with parenting. I wish more people would be honest and open up about their experiences with their children, with their partners, with their families. Becoming a mom has brought up so many new concerns, new points-of-view, new fears and worries, new celebrations, new ideas for me, that it's impossible for me not to share those thoughts on my blog. Simply put, things are just different now, and my eyes are wide open! 


I've always been a feminist as long as I can remember. Graduate school proved it to me even more. And, now, as a mother, I'm even more in touch with my feminist perspectives. Leaving any of myself out of the equation when writing about Banner and my life with him in it goes against everything I believe in. I'm not about just writing about our lovely little life with the happiest baby on the block. I'm all about writing what the realities of our experiences are, how we truly feel about things, and being honest about how we got here. Being able to write about my experiences as a new mom makes me a happier mom, which makes Banner a happier baby, no doubt. We are all in this life together, and everything I do is for him now, but I certainly can't leave myself out in raising him well. So, I proudly support these "Mommy Bloggers," (and Daddy Bloggers, too!) who write about parenting from a feminist perspective. I'm happy to say I'm one of them!

For more on this topic, see this post, too.