What does it mean to be a woman? The culture has wrestled with this point for decades. Ironically, diametrically opposed sides often make the same mistake: conflating the aesthetics of femininity with its definition.
Many who embrace transgender ideology argue that feeling feminine and dressing the part are all it takes to identify oneself as “woman.” On the other hand, many reacting against modern feminism display their “trad wife” life on Instagram, striving to divide household labor along stereotypically gendered lines.
Joining the Know Why Podcast, Rachel Schroder argues that both camps miss the true definition of femininity, trading its aesthetics for its full meaning and purpose. She helps us know why the full definition of femininity is broader than what is often portrayed by “trad wife” extremes, and also more family-oriented than modern feminism allows.
Listen for a thought-provoking and encouraging conversation about what it means to be a woman, how women can embrace both their biological nature and their God-given talents inside the home and in the workforce, what balancing family and career might look like, and how developing virtue matters more than following stereotypes.
Women want “half the pie,” and abortion doesn’t give it to them. That’s what Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, founder and president of New Wave Feminists, asserts in this episode of the Know Why podcast.
Feminism is defined as “belief in and advocacy of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes expressed especially through organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.”Today, however, it can seem like the word “feminism” has a lot more attached to it.
But that event also highlighted the growing number of women who consider themselves “pro-life feminists.” Like other feminists, they fight for equality of the sexes. But they argue abortion contributes more to women’s inequality than liberation.
“That’s why society as a whole thinks we need abortion, cause it’s a cop-out,” Destiny said. “It allows us to retain these patriarchal structures of a world that was built for men, by men, and doesn’t accommodate womanhood.”
“There is this level of underlying resentment towards women in corporate America and in Academica whenever they do continue a pregnancy,” Destiny told Know Why.
Bodily Autonomy From Existence?
But what about the argument that women have a right to bodily autonomy? Pro-life feminists agree, but point to scientific evidence that from fertilization, the fetus is a genetically unique human being, with a body distinct from its mother’s.
“When it comes to issues like bodily autonomy, I think you should have it the moment your body first exists,” Destiny said. “Women have been treated as property for most of millennia, and so you have this new kind of rise of rights and liberation, but are we becoming the patriarchy ourselves? Are we now treating another subset of the human family as property based on their vulnerabilities?”
Seeing Them Both
On its website, New Wave Feminists asserts that “no woman ever wants to have an abortion.” A study by the Guttmacher Institute found that most women abort because “having a baby would dramatically interfere with their education, work or ability to care for their dependents, or they could not afford a baby at the time.”
“The pro-life side, a lot of times they see one person; they see the unborn child. And the feminist side sees one person; they see the woman,” Destiny said in a documentary called “Pro-Life Feminist.” “But pro-life feminists see two people. We want to protect and support two people.”
