“Women Supporting Women,” Infertility, and Mother’s Day

There are many myths out there about the female condition around empathy and support.

If you want probably the clearest socio-cultural or political version of the idea that women don’t support other women, just look at Trump’s two national electoral victories. Both were against women (he’s actually 0–1 vs. a man), and these two wins came despite Trump being generally awful to women for years and years at this point. In 2024, there were so many calls around “women supporting women” and “it’s all about reproductive rights, all women can understand that,” and somehow Kamala got murdered, even though women are 51% of the populace in the U.S. Various and sundry theories exist for why, and here’s one you don’t hear as much: women are not a “monolith,” and thus different women care about different things. Protected, gilded cage women care about their husband’s income ability, and a lot of times, that meant a vote for Don. As for “reproductive rights” as a central female issue, it should be, but of course it’s not. A woman in prime reproductive years who wants kids does not care about the universal idea of reproductive rights, because she has no plans to get an abortion if it happens for her. A woman 20 years post menopause who wants to live to 90? She cares more about the cost of widgets than…