Advocate Stories, Leadership and Civic Engagement
Men for WREN
by Ashley Lidow on Jun 15, 2018
Recently a local politician was doing an interview about South Carolina candidates and made the comment that a man was “abandoning” his newborn son by running for Congress.
Cue the: SAY WHAT?!
Many folks were dismayed by the allegation and some even went so far to say that this was a “new low” of an attack. While we agree that it is a nasty, unnecessary attack, this is not something that is new to politics. Women have been subjected to this question (we even recently wrote a blog about it happening in our Statehouse) when they run for office, or just continue their careers after having children.
Both women and men, Republicans and Democrats on Twitter were quick to point out this reality:
This leads me to my next point: men and women who become parents are not damaged goods to society and are not beholden to just being parents. They should have every opportunity to pursue their goals like continuing their education, making advancements in their careers, and—yes—running for political office.
We as a society do not need to discourage men from engaging in activities that are seen as women’s work, like caregiving, because those gender stereotypes hold us all back. And, furthermore, neither men nor women should be discouraged from pursuing professional or personal development after having children. This does not make you selfish; this makes you well-rounded. Continuing to improve yourself as an individual is an admirable trait, and one that we should be teaching our children, because it will better the community at large.
This Father’s Day, we encourage folks to tweet their stories about men who support their families in any way, lift the women in their lives up, and/or celebrate the diversity of what caregiving looks like. Use the hashtag #MenforWREN to tweet us your shout-outs and favorite moments.
Let’s celebrate and support the moms and dads in South Carolina.