I’ve always thought that wife and mother were relationships not jobs or vocations. Homemaker is an honorable job/vocation but not gender specific. But wife? Mother? Nope, those describe a relationship that changes over time.
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Were they surprised, aghast, or something in between?
Surprised, aghast, appalled.
Will be my last comment about this because it’s off-topic, but do these “very liberal parents” really think that a civilized society can somehow exist without the presence of police and the military?
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Oh my, I really wish I hadn’t gone there 
I cannot believe the statements being made on that page. It’s one thing if you want to do something for yourself, but to declare that ALL women should do what you do is just ridiculous.
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Thank you, Sisters!
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Literally just came here to post that! An excerpt:
The sisters of Mount St. Scholastica do not believe that Harrison Butker’s comments in his 2024 Benedictine College commencement address represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested.
Instead of promoting unity in our church, our nation, and the world, his comments seem to have fostered division. One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman. We sisters have dedicated our lives to God and God’s people, including the many women whom we have taught and influenced during the past 160 years. These women have made a tremendous difference in the world in their roles as wives and mothers and through their God-given gifts in leadership, scholarship, and their careers.
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A good editorial. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/05/16/harrison-butker-speech/
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Thank you for sharing. The writer makes excellent points:
“Inflationary language is, of course, inherently lazy.”
“I’m more concerned with his scaremonger, doomwatcher language. It’s his symptomatic inflationary alarmism that’s worth worrying about.”
“The cheapening of words by public speakers across the spectrum has begun to rob us all of perspective…”
I sincerely hope a lot of people read the entire editorial. It transcends Butker and puts the ‘time we are living in’ into context.
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I’m unable to read the WaPo editorial. Does anyone have a gift link?
gift link: https://wapo.st/3QP6pOP
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Thank you for the gift link. I may have to subscribe… this is just brilliantly written.
I don’t follow football; have never heard of the guy until the brouhaha, could care less about what any athlete has to say about whatever. But there may be a silver lining in all of this. It’s been well covered in the business press that the NFL has a significant strategy in place to make women as avid football fans as men are. And that they’ve made a lot of progress over the last few years- and not just on Super Bowl day. Taylor Swift helped a lot with a key demographic (look at the billions in revenue her tours have generated for the host cities to see how devoted her fans are) but that was serendipity. But young women can be “developed” into major fans, thus helping the viewership numbers and ratings, attendance, ancillary revenue from apparel and other branded products, etc.
If these comments turn even a sliver of women off- that will be a nice comeuppance, doncha think? Do we need MORE people who think it’s fun watching a bunch of big men hurl each other to the ground and then wait a decade to see how significant their brain damage turns out to be? And then wait two decades for the inevitable “who knew there was a link between dementia and getting clobbered in the head?”
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Wash Po is my only subscription. It’s so good.
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I would say in the attitudes of people, but you can’t really change that with legislation or activism. But I’ve had multiple adults say I shouldn’t go for medicine/grad school so I can have kids earlier and stay home more, women don’t make good leaders, etc. Nothing is actually stopping women from doing those things, but it’s not exactly encouraging either.
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Ugh, that’s ridiculous. I graduated at the top of my engineering class back in the dark ages. I’m surprised and disappointed that there still aren’t more female structural engineers. I’m usually the only woman at seminars. Occasionally there are one or two others.
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You can’t change the fact that women are the one giving birth, More men are stay at home dads but childbearing is still on women unless they use surrogate and requires time off from their careers. Some women want to stay childless and it’s absolutely fine but for those who want to have children and career it’s much more difficult then for men.
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It’s more challenging but it’s certainly doable. I actually enjoyed being a mom AND a professional. I want to encourage young women that they shouldn’t be scared off from trying.
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I can’t think of her name and google is failing me. There recently was a high level female tech executive who was vocal about having a surrogate for her children. She claimed she did not want to take any time off from her job and lose her career progress. I am not sure she will be a good mother if this is how she feels.
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Of course it’s doable and I also was working mom, and my mom was and generation of women are but the fact is childbearing takes at least a year off ones career per child and at 3 or 4 children many professional women decide if it’s making sense to continue to stay in that rat race both emotionally and financially.
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I worked up until the day I had my kids. I didn’t miss an hour for either pregnancy. I did all my appointments on my lunch hour. I had a whopping 1 week maternity leave with older S, and a 6 week leave with younger S. So no, not a lot of time off is absolutely required. That wasn’t what I necessarily wanted. It’s what we could afford.
Not to mention, nowadays many men have more time than that off when their kids are born. At my workplace - the same as when I had my kids - the men get 8 PAID weeks with each kid. Mine was unpaid.
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