Daughter of a Feminist Asks What about the Children?

The consequences of growing up the daughter of the trail-blazing feminist and author Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple left Rebecca Walker lonely, ambivalent, and very confused with her longing to be a mother.

She was taught that motherhood was a form of servitude and the worst thing that could happen to a woman.   

When I hit my 20s and first felt a longing to be a mother, I was totally confused. I could feel my biological clock ticking, but I felt if I listened to it, I would be betraying my mother and all she had taught me.

How my mother's fanatical feminist views tore us apart.

I know many women are shocked by my views. They expect the daughter of Alice Walker to deliver a very different message. Yes, feminism has undoubtedly given women opportunities. It's helped open the doors for us at schools, universities and in the workplace. But what about the problems it's caused for my contemporaries?

The ease with which people can get divorced these days doesn't take into account the toll on children. That's all part of the unfinished business of feminism.

Then there is the issue of not having children. Even now, I meet women in their 30s who are ambivalent about having a family. They say things like: 'I'd like a child. If it happens, it happens.' I tell them: 'Go home and get on with it because your window of opportunity is very small.' As I know only too well.

Then I meet women in their 40s who are devastated because they spent two decades working on a PhD or becoming a partner in a law firm, and they missed out on having a family. Thanks to the feminist movement, they discounted their biological clocks. They've missed the opportunity and they're bereft.

Feminism has betrayed an entire generation of women into childlessness. It is devastating.

"Baby Love" (Rebecca Walker)

She's her own woman now, blessed to be a mom and soon-to-published author of Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence.