“I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you, how many of you are sitting here now about to cross the stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you’re going to get in your career... But I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
I can’t say I was fantasizing about motherhood as a 22-year-old; personally, I wanted to be the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs.
The “diabolical lie” Butker warns of appears to be the idea that women need a career to be fulfilled. But Butker isn’t upset that women think they can’t be stay-at-home moms; he’s upset that they might not want to be.
Let’s play out what this would actually mean, in practice, if the vast majority of women graduating college listened to Butker’s advice and never joined the workforce. I’m going to set aside the mental health effects on women forced into homemaking— which are well-documented —because I think it’s possible Butker doesn’t care. Instead, I want to look at what this will do for the rest of society.
First, the effect on the overall economy. It’s a common misconception that the 1950s housewife is “traditional.” In fact, the model of a stay-at-home wife and working husband was only really common for about 15 years post-WWII, it was far more common for white families, and it coincided with an economic boom time ( historian Stephanie Coontz has a book all about this ).
There were housewives before and after that time, but the idea that “housewife” is the default profession for women throughout history is just patently false. Women have worked outside the home because women have needed to, and they need to today.
In essence: we need women to work. There are all kinds of jobs that have to be done. Important ones, not, like, being a football player.
Secondly, the effect on individual families. This is complicated because the cost of childcare is so high that some parents get driven out of the workforce, and stay-at-home parents do make valuable (and often underappreciated) financial contributions to their families.
However, in general, single-earner families are worse off financially. For example, the poverty level for families with only one income-earner is about four times that of families with two incomes. Even more egregiously, Butker’s speech addressed college graduates. Among student loan borrowers, the average amount of debt for a college graduate in 2023 is $38,290. If he’s going to tell women not to have jobs, at least have the decency to do it before they’ve put themselves or their households $40k in debt!
And perhaps Butker is reading this (doubtful, I don’t think he reads), and thinking, “fine, women should stay home unless they need to work.” But it’s not that easy. Women pay a serious financial penalty for taking time out of the workforce; they might not be able to re-enter later on. And to be clear—that’s wrong.
It’s wrong that women pay a penalty for taking time off, or that we don’t have better financial support for families. It should be easier to be a single-income family. Even if it’s factually true, I don’t like the idea that women should join the workforce because they have to, financially.
There’s an extent to which I agree with Butker—if someone’s dream is to be a stay-at-home parent, I believe she (or he) should be able to actualize on it. Where Butker and I differ, though, is that I don’t think one life path can be broadly prescribed; each woman needs to make that decision for herself.
There’s an extent to which Butker agrees with me; I just know it. So many of these men who promote housewives and “traditional” (aka 1950s) values for women and fight policies to empower women professionally know how important it is that women be included in the workforce—they have these women in their own lives. There are too many examples to list, but here are a few: Butker’s own mother is a physicist .
All these men have benefited financially from the working women in their own lives; it’s just other women working that they seem to have a problem with.
Rarely do I feel compelled to speak up for men, but I will here: all men should have the right to spend money their wives earn. The end results of Butker’s worldview aren’t good for women, but they’re not good for anyone else, either. And I think he knows it.
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