In an April 2025 episode of The Charlie Kirk Present, Erika Kirk, the spouse of the slain conservative pundit, gave her ideas on submission and the function of a girl in a “Biblical marriage.”
Win McNamee / Getty Pictures
“Your husband needs to be the one which goes out into the world and builds and battles and comes dwelling. Conquers,” she stated as Charlie Kirk sat subsequent to her. “[He] comes dwelling and is like, that is my nest egg, that is what I labored so onerous for, and the spouse is like, ‘Welcome dwelling, babe, no matter you want, we’re right here.’”
PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP by way of Getty Pictures
There are events when a person has to step in and keep at dwelling ― she admitted that her personal father did so briefly and that it was a “actually candy and actually particular” time in her childhood. Nonetheless, she stated, her mother and father divorced, which proved her level: Usually, a wedding is stronger when the person is the supplier.
Now, Erika Kirk is foisted into the supplier function. Every week after Charlie Kirk was gunned down throughout a talking occasion at a Utah campus, Erika Kirk was introduced because the CEO and chair of the board for his firm, Turning Level USA.
Win McNamee / Getty Pictures
The board “unanimously elected” Erika Kirk, explaining that “in prior discussions, Charlie expressed to a number of executives that that is what he needed within the occasion of his demise.”
In a speech days after his demise, she spoke on to her husband’s assassin: “You don’t have any concept the fireplace that you’ve got ignited inside this spouse.”
On an episode of The Charlie Kirk Present not too long ago, the mother of two smiled and guaranteed the couple’s legions of followers that her “husband’s voice will reside on. The present will go on.”
Illustration: HuffPost; Photograph: Getty Pictures
However some might surprise: How will Erika Kirk, 36, reconcile her new function as CEO of his tremendous PAC with the messaging she’s promoted at her late husband’s aspect ― that ladies are supposed to be “the guardian of your own home” and shouldn’t pursue their very own careers whereas elevating youngsters?
For conservatives, the contradiction goes down simple: From the anti-suffrage period to fashionable politics, girls have lengthy performed an instrumental function within the conservative motion, via a loophole: Having all of it ― a political profession and a tradwife life ― is feasible, however solely with the blessing of your husband or your father.
In Erika Kirk’s case, she’s persevering with his profession, not taking hers to new heights.
“Conservative girls claiming to not be profession girls whereas being within the public eye in politics or enterprise is nothing new,” stated Shauna Shames, an affiliate professor of political science and girls’s research at Rutgers College–Camden in New Jersey.
“Erika Kirk is a contemporary incarnation however not totally different in variety to [gay rights opponent] Anita Bryant, televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker and positively Phyllis Schlafly.”
Erika Kirk and tradwife influencers owe rather a lot to 1 lady: Phyllis Schlafly.
Win McNamee / Getty Pictures
Maybe nobody has pulled off this public balancing act with as a lot dexterity as Phyllis Schlafly. The conservative activist loved a thriving, decades-long profession in politics ― she famously led a profitable marketing campaign in opposition to the ratification of the Equal Rights Modification within the Seventies ― whereas reminding the ladies of America that safety and residential and fireplace was preferable to a job and equality.
A mother of six ― and spouse to Fred Schlafly, a lawyer ― Schlafly argued that it was potential to stability submission at dwelling with a sure sort of political advocacy: letter-writing campaigns, talking earlier than girls’s golf equipment, debating feminists (and in some instances, rattling them) whereas framing oneself because the voice of the “conventional” American lady.
In a 1978 profile in Time journal, Schlafly spoke of how she squared her profession ― a legislation diploma, two runs for Congress ― along with her stay-at-home rhetoric: “My husband lets me do what I wish to do,” she stated. “I’ve canceled speeches at any time when my husband thought that I had been away from dwelling an excessive amount of.”
In speeches, Schlafly joked about her balancing act and the way her wifely subservience irked her opponents. “To begin with, I wish to thank my husband Fred, for letting me come — I at all times wish to say that, as a result of it makes the libs so mad!” she’s quoted as saying.
Bettmann by way of Getty Pictures
In some ways, Erika Kirk falls into the Schlafly mildew: They’re each extremely educated. Whereas Charlie Kirk argued that school “is a waste of time” to an viewers on the Turning Level Motion’s Younger Girls’s Management Summit in August, his spouse holds a grasp’s diploma in American authorized research from Liberty College, and is presently pursuing a doctorate in biblical research, in response to her web site.
Since having two children, she’s continued to host a podcast and run a Christian clothes line and ministry.
Nonetheless, “boss babe tradition” is “poisonous,” she informed the couple’s followers on the identical summit in 2021.
“While you meet the best man, all the things shifts, all the things modifications. Once I met Charlie, that was it. I might care much less concerning the profession,” she stated on the summit this summer time. “Motherhood just isn’t a pause — it’s a launchpad.”
For conservatives, there’s no contradiction in Erika Kirk’s twin roles.
Win McNamee / Getty Pictures
These flocking to Erika Kirk ― like those that flocked to Phyllis Schlafly within the ’70s and ’80s ― don’t see something hypocritical in any of this, stated Donald Critchlow, a professor of historical past at Arizona State College and the writer of Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Lady’s Campaign.
“Kirk and Schlafly consider girls’s main obligations ought to be to their households and youngsters, whereas being civically engaged,” he informed HuffPost. “Involvement at school boards, as an example, charities, temperance, abolitionism, and a full vary of different actions.”
As Critchlow sees it, the separation between household, work outdoors the house, and civic engagement are “false dichotomies created by second-wave and postmodern feminism.”
Amy Binder, an SNF Agora Institute professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins College, sees the contradiction. However for conservatives, having twin roles just isn’t as paradoxical or ideologically inconsistent as progressives may assume.
“Kirk’s function as profession lady is much less of a contradiction as a result of it’s in service to conventional gender norms, encouraging girls to be wives and moms first,” the professor informed HuffPost. “The place liberals may see contradiction in profession vs. household, I think that Erika Kirk’s followers see womanly devotion.”
Samuel Corum by way of Getty Pictures
“All in all, I’ve discovered that conservative girls consider they’re advocating optionality for girls, whereas liberal feminists devalue all choices besides profession and try to make girls extra like males, which is in opposition to their important nature,” stated Binder, the writer of The Channels of Scholar Activism: How the Left and Proper Are Successful (and Shedding) in Campus Politics As we speak.
Standard podcasters like Christian conservative Allie Beth Stuckey and tradwife influencers are reaching apolitical audiences with that actual message.
The concept that girls “must be liberated” and “go into the workforce,” somewhat than keep at dwelling and have children, “has really led to much more distress than freedom,” Stuckey informed the Atlantic journal in a 2024 profile the place they dubbed her “the brand new Phyllis Schlafly.”
In Washington, D.C., Republican senators like Katie Britt (Ala.) and Supreme Courtroom Justice Amy Coney Barrett do all of it, too ― granted, most likely with much more little one care assist than the common mother.
Final yr, White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt returned to work simply 4 days after giving beginning when Trump introduced his candidacy. “I might reject that you may’t be mother and be good at your job,” Leavitt stated on a current podcast. “It’s not for everyone. And it takes a whole lot of work and can and religion and prayer, and it’s onerous. However it may be accomplished.”
The economics of staying at dwelling or “having all of it” are virtually inconceivable, until you’re rich.
Eric Thayer / Getty Pictures
Associated: Right here Are 19 Surprising Tales From Individuals Who Determined To Give up Attending A “Mega-Church”
What these girls don’t dwell on is how restricted your choices are in case you’re not a multimillionaire podcaster or a member of the political elite.
Although each Democratic and Republican mother and father (86% and 88%) say that being a dad or mum is both one of the vital essential or probably the most essential facet of their identification, few have the posh of getting one dad or mum keep at dwelling. Based on a Pew Analysis Heart report on parenting in America in the present day, practically as many Republican moms (67%) work outdoors the house as Democratic moms (70%).
“All of us face the straightforward financial fact that few households and even {couples} can afford to reside absolutely on only one particular person’s wage anymore,” Shames stated. “Girls’s labor drive participation has gone up, up, up, though they have a tendency to not work as many hours as males, and nonetheless receives a commission rather a lot much less, although usually due to job segregation somewhat than direct discrimination.”
PATRICK T. FALLON by way of Getty Pictures
There are actual grievances each women and men have in the present day about present financial, social and political circumstances round parenting: The price of little one care continues to rise, with the common value of every week of day care going up 13% between 2022 and 2024, as an example. Households in the present day are spending a mean of 24% of their revenue on little one care — that’s greater than triple the 7% the Division of Well being and Human Companies considers reasonably priced.
Nonetheless, Shames stated, none of that’s the fault of feminism.
“Feminism is a handy scapegoat for anger about deep constructions which can be onerous to see and title, mainly globalization, democratic erosion, and exploitative capitalism with disappearing social security nets.”
Will in the present day’s conservative girls carry within the “finish of feminism”? In all probability not.
Win McNamee / Getty Pictures
Throughout her eulogy at her husband’s memorial occasion at State Farm Stadium in Arizona, Erika Kirk forgave her husband’s assassin and known as on his followers to not let his assassination silence the conservative motion.
Many have been moved by the speech. Catholic author and YouTube commentator Taylor Marshall tweeted, “Erika simply ended the Feminist motion.”
Some disagreed. “[Erika Kirk] has 3 college levels, she’s a businesswoman and ceo, she received married in her 30s (to a person 5 years youthful than her), had children in her mid 30s,” one lady wrote. ”[Her] complete life is the results of feminism.”
And feminism might be right here to remain, a lot to the chagrin of non secular activists like Marshall. Ever because it’s existed, individuals have been claiming to kill the motion, Shames stated.
“Schlafly didn’t ‘finish feminism,’ nor will Erika Kirk,” the professor stated. “All of it, I believe, really emphasizes the ability of feminism and the persevering with challenges we face.”
“In truth, we’re at what might be a excessive level of feminism traditionally, with extra girls on the planet having extra selections than ever earlier than when it comes to the way to construction their very own lives and pursue their very own goals,” she stated.This text initially appeared on HuffPost.
Additionally in Goodful: This Self-Consciousness Take a look at Will Inform You How Emotionally Clever You Actually Are
Additionally in Goodful: Medical Professionals Are Sharing 20 Sufferers Who Turned Out To Be Appropriate About Wild Self-Diagnoses
Additionally in Goodful: Medical doctors Are Sharing The “I Cannot Imagine I Want To Clarify This To You” Convos They’ve Had With Adults, And I Cannot Imagine These Are Really Actual
