Liberal Parenthood

After the last election, there was quite a bit of analysis performed in the blogosphere about the Red and Blue birthrates. Locusts and Honey has noticed that there are several articles out in the bluosphere about rediscovering the rewards of parenting. Their profound discoveries are often things that conservatives have known and propogated for a very long time.

I think the reason this is so revolutionary has to do with the stronger embrace of extreme feminism on liberal culture. If there is one thing that feminism does not do, it is respect the institution of motherhood. Motherhood is often portrayed as reproductive bondage. The woman must care for the children which require resources she could spend elsewhere to earn respect for herself. This is why abortion and birth control are backed so prominently by feminism, they "liberate" a woman so that she doesn't have to be a mother. This control allows her to achieve on her own.

Now a lot of feminists will say things like "we think motherhood is good" at this point. If a woman choses to be a mother good for her, we just want women to be able to make the choice not to be. They have a point of course. They are only freeing a woman to choose to be a mother or not. But when you actually read their literature, you get a pretty clear picture of which choice the feminists feel is superior.

I'm reminded of a meeting we had at work. The upper management basically told the young folks that if you really wanted a good future here, you needed to work towards entering management and climbing the career ladder. If you didn't, if you just wanted to be a good analyst or a great programmer (presumably because you enjoy those things), well you could spend a career at it but you definitely won't be rewarded as highly or compensated as well. They didn't say "glass ceiling", they said "performance plateau" which is the same thing turned upside down.