Maddie Luebkert, Social Media Editor–


I sit down at my kitchen table in my university’s apartment. I have scrambled eggs, toast and black coffee next to me. 

Per usual, I read the news on my phone during my breakfast. This morning, a New York Times (NYT) headline catches my eye:

“A MAGA Summit for Young Women Pushes for ‘Less Burnout, More Babies,” it reads.

I cringe, maybe from the bitterness of my black coffee, maybe from the idea that having babies would create less instead of more burnout, as many of the comments in the story also point out. 

It’s true that in recent years, there has been a movement turning away from traditional feminism that conservative women have labeled as the push to forgo marriage, pursue a career and become “childless cat ladies.”

A life, I might add, that does not sound completely repulsive to me, a 20-something journalism student. 

Some women have become frustrated with this newfound sense of “girl-power.” Shouldn’t we support women no matter the direction they take? Whether they choose to pursue a family, career, let alone both?

After all, raising a family can be just as fulfilling (and definitely as difficult an undertaking) as climbing the corporate ladder and making a name for yourself in your field. 

However, in the polarized world we live in today, it seems that whenever there is a swing in one direction, i.e. women should live a career-driven, independent life, the pendulum comes firing right back in the opposite direction with a vengeance. 

That pendulum swing takes the form of the NYT headline I read over my breakfast of eggs and coffee. Burnout? Have more babies. 

But it’s not just about babies. It’s about a “women’s leadership summit” encouraging women to get married and pursue a life at home. A common theme throughout the summit: countertops are more empowering than cubicles. 

What concerns me about the “Make America Healthy Again” movement is not the shift toward marriage and family life. It’s the lack of a back up plan that conjures up bright-red warning flags in my mind.  

If this new wave of “Make America Healthy Again” anti-feminism continues, many will realize it’s really not a great idea to completely depend on your partner, no matter who they are. Most single moms do not plan on becoming one. An education is an important and necessary back up plan. 

Without that, many may find themselves asking: What do I do now?

That is the anxiety I feel churning in my stomach along with coffee, toast and scrambled eggs. The turn away from pursuing higher ed, from gaining work experience and the language surrounding how women talk about “corporate life” and “climbing the ladder,” it all makes me incredibly itchy. 

As Fox News host and mother of nine children Rachel Campos-Duffy puts it: if a young, single woman finds an attractive man, she should marry him “and all the other stuff will work itself out.” 

Campos-Duffy made this statement on a podcast she hosts with her husband, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, called From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys. 

But I beg the question, what if all the other stuff doesn’t work itself out?

What if marriage should not be plan a, plan b, or a plan in any way, shape or form to support yourself?

I grew up in an age where, finally, women are encouraged to chase accomplishments that don’t involve baby or bridal showers. Now that I’m in college, I’m not going to let that dream go. I want to work, I want to climb the ladder, I’ll outstretch my hand and hoist myself up to the next rung over and over again.

On the bright side, it might be a good thing this lifestyle is gaining momentum. It could mean that educated and working women have become so normalized, folks are now working to stigmatize it, again. 

And while some women may be forgetting it now thanks to the normalization of career women, there is a reason feminism became a thing in the first place. Many, many reasons, that for the sake of not adding 10,000 more pages to this op-ed, I will not get into. 

I will end this by telling you right here right now, as a woman: I would like a career. Pretty please, with a cherry on top. That is what I hope for as I sit in my university’s apartment, drinking coffee, and writing stories. 

Maddie Luebkert ‘27 is a journalism major and politics and public affairs minor from Northville, Michigan.