For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to finish my degree, get married, have babies, and never work again.
I spend a great deal of time with little kids and love it, so I'm always daydreaming about the day when I will get to have a few of my own. I dream about sending my children off to school, cleaning the house, and preparing delicious, healthy meals for them. I dream about teaching them to read, helping them with school projects, and going to their soccer games. Similarly, I dream about welcoming my husband home after long days of work, having weekly date nights with him, and raising a beautiful family with him. To what extent these dreams will come true (or even of how realistic they are), I am not positive. This is just the cozy life I envision for myself, and I have wanted it for as long as I can remember.
For as long as I can remember, I have also been a feminist.
In simple terms, this means that I am a proponent of the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. I believe that women should be paid the same amount as their male counterparts for doing the same work. I believe women and men should have equal representation in government. I believe that sexual harassment and rape culture should not be tolerated by our society. I believe that laws about women's bodies should not be made by old white men. Most of all, I believe that every woman should have the choice to be whatever she wants to be.
It astounds me when I speak with people who don't believe these two parts of me--the future housewife and the feminist--can coexist peacefully.
One of the most important concepts behind feminism is choice. It is the idea that nobody should be able to make decisions for another. Let's get something straight: Women do not belong in the home. Neither do they belong in the workplace. And women should not have to adhere to societal expectations of what it means to be "ladylike." Women belong wherever the heck they feel like belonging, and the only time they should adhere to societal expectations is when they want to.
Women should never be shamed for the choices they make. Whether they choose to go to work, stay home with their kids, get an abortion, live with their partner before marriage, never get married, never have kids, or whatever they may choose, one of the central ideas of feminism is that every woman's choices should be respected.
My choice to be a future housewife of America says nothing about what kind of feminist I am. My respect for the decisions of other women does.
I plan on doing all I can to be a wonderful wife and mother, and I look forward to instilling the feminist values of equality and choice in my sons and daughters.
