Washington Examiner economics columnist Tiana Lowe Doescher pushed back on the idea that women must delay motherhood to achieve professional or political success, arguing that women can pursue influential careers while also raising families.
“The idea that, oh, in order to be a full person, you have to delay motherhood,” Doescher said on CNN’s Group Chat Monday.
Doescher made the comments in response to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) decision to freeze her eggs and share the process with her followers, telling them she would continue documenting it and inviting them to submit questions.
Doescher noted that the congresswoman is approaching 37 and has been in a long-term relationship with her partner. “So AOC is almost 37. She’s been with the same partner for over a decade. She can do whatever she wants, right? She can freeze her eggs, she can delay it,” Doescher said.
Doescher stressed that Ocasio-Cortez has the right to make her own decisions about whether and when to have children but also argued that the broader message surrounding successful women and motherhood can be problematic when it suggests the two are incompatible.
Doescher cited Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who has a young child, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who is a mother of seven, as examples of women who have combined motherhood with prominent political careers.
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“But why can’t we accept the idea that a woman in a position of power, Elise Stefanik, who is a newborn, Amy Coney Barrett, who has 11 children. … You can be a mother and also be a very influential person in politics,” Doescher said. “Again, her body, her choice. I’m not telling her what to do.
“The idea that to be a full person, you have to choose one or the other. That seems very regressive,” Doescher said.