From where I’m sitting, society continues to place pressure on women. I’m not talking about in the traditional housewife stay-at-home mom sense—its gotten bigger than that now.
First, to be clear, this is written from the perspective of a 20-year-old woman. I cannot attest to the difficulties of being a man in our current society, and I won’t try to compare the two experiences. This is simply a testament to my experience, which may or may not be comparable to other women’s experiences.
Women need to have children, have hobbies, keep the house clean (still?!), make sure we make it to girl’s night, oh, and don’t forget a college degree, or mom’s birthday, or to feed the cat. Oh, and load the dishwasher! Don’t forget to go to work!
All these things are in the realm of a woman’s responsibilities in the home. I know, I see it every day. Unless she’s married, then her husband/father of their children might switch the laundry over. Otherwise, that’s the life of the average stay-at-home mom.
These responsibilities aren’t entirely society’s fault, as anyone can point out. Women have a choice in whether they have children or not (sometimes), and going to college is an option. But you cannot ignore the pressures that society places on women to do these things.
In 2024, Kansas City Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker told female college graduates that their greatest calling in life was to become a homemaker, claiming that “the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
Speaking to female college graduates and reducing their degrees to being useful in the household is disheartening to any young woman who is aspiring to be anything else.
When addressing the men in the crowd, he lifted them up, saying, “Men, we set the tone of the culture.” This difference in how Butker himself addressed the group of graduates is exactly the kind of thing that makes the lived experience of women different than the lived experience of men.
This is without acknowledging Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk’s perspective of women going to college only to achieve an “Mrs.” degree.
When speaking to a 14-year-old girl at an event, he encouraged her to “be clear on why [she’s] going to college” and “don’t lie to yourself,” claiming, “we know why you’re here,” saying it’s a good reason to go to college—to find a husband. Continuing to reduce women to finding and relying on men is not the direction society needs to turn to.
In 2025, women are still campaigning for equal rights to men. Women today have less rights than they did in 1972.
While things like college enrollment and employment are on the rise for women overall, we are still missing fundamentals like equal pay, equal opportunity, and bodily autonomy, while being asked to juggle a full-time job, household, social life, and family while gaining an education.
This is simply too much societal pressure for one woman to hold, and something has got to give.