Thread by @LeftStandingUp

Whew! Ok, looks like--especially given the questioning of Amy Coney Barrett today--this is something we need to talk about more for a second here.

There are many reasons why our society’s concept of family is outdated and dangerous. 1/

https://twitter.com/LeftStandingUp/status/1316012427901722627

First of all, women don’t have children for so many reasons. Sometimes it’s a choice, and society needs to do a better job of respecting that. No woman is less valuable or worthy because she decided not to have children.

Sometimes though, it’s not a choice. 2/

Sometimes a woman wants a child but can’t have one. Sometimes it’s because of something physical, or health related, which can be heartbreaking for those who do want children. Sometimes it’s because of an economic barrier (newsflash: raising children is EXPENSIVE). 3/

Sometimes, their current social structure doesn’t allow for it - a less than supportive origin family, a partner who doesn’t want kids, no partner at all (which for some women is a dealbreaker, for others not).

Bottom line, there are so many reasons women don't have kids. 4/

But also - and this is important - women without children still have family obligations, to both biological and chosen families. There are people in our lives we are still responsible for - elderly people, other children, loved ones with disabilities or illnesses, etc. 5/

Our society has a terrible habit of erasing caregivers. From access to health care to workplace accommodations, those who take on caregiving responsibilities--overwhelmingly women--are made invisible. 6/

Our public policy, and our workplaces, haven’t caught up with this reality of American families yet. It’s why women are still expected to be the primary caregiver for not just their own kids, but entire families, taking on both the physical and emotional burden of care. 7/

A major issue is that society pretends to honor women who make these “sacrifices” for the family. But we don't really - we turn them into martyrs. The truth is though that I don’t know a single mother who wouldn’t rather have more support than that kind of faux worship 8/

Additionally, many people frequently pit women w/out children against those w/ children, demanding the former pick up extra work in the professional space, or take on additional burdens at home. This helps NO ONE. 9/

Women w/o children recognize the unique challenges of caring for and raising children, especially in extraordinary times like these. We WANT mothers to have more flexibility, resources, and support. But that's a challenge society needs to take on together, collectively. 10/

Our society’s entire construct and understanding of family needs to change - in our healthcare system, in our child care and schools, in our legal system, in our workplaces, and in every place where individuals and communities live and interact with one another. 11/

The belief that families are not families if they don’t have a present mother and father and lots of kids and a white picket fence ignores the lived experiences of MOST families in the United States. It is destructive and does real damage to millions of families 12/

Every family matters. Every family is a family, and no government official--let alone a Supreme Court justice--gets to tell any family that they’re not valid, or they are "less than" because they don’t look like a ‘50s sitcom 13/

I'm a young woman w/o children, but deep ties & responsibilities to both my biological & my chosen family. I want everybody to have the resources and support they need to care for their own unique families, and that, to be honest, is my number one reason for voting this year 14/

Given the nightmare we are collectively living through right now, there is no other way to make that kind of change than to vote for new leaders who will respect the needs of a new kind of American family, and address the disparities that have been encoded into our society 15/

So I’ll close this thread by saying this: reach out if you need help or have questions, but for the sake of ALL of our families, please, vote: iwillvote.com 16/16