MAGA Christians Are Demanding Wives Stay Home — But There’s 1 Big Problem

Those flocking to Erika Kirk ― like those who flocked to Phyllis Schlafly in the ’70s and ’80s ― don’t see anything hypocritical in any of this, said Donald Critchlow, a professor of history at Arizona State University and the author of Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman’s Crusade.

“Kirk and Schlafly believe women’s primary obligations should be to their families and children, while being civically engaged,” he told HuffPost. “Involvement in school boards, for instance, charities, temperance, abolitionism, and a full range of other activities.”

As Critchlow sees it, the separation between family, work outside the home, and civic engagement are “false dichotomies created by second-wave and postmodern feminism.”

Amy Binder, an SNF Agora Institute professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, sees the contradiction. But for conservatives, having dual roles is not as paradoxical or ideologically inconsistent as progressives might think.

“Kirk’s role as career woman is less of a contradiction because it is in service to traditional gender norms, encouraging women to be wives and mothers first,” the professor told HuffPost. “Where liberals might see contradiction in career vs. family, I suspect that Erika Kirk’s followers see womanly devotion.”