Praxis Circle welcomes our newest Contributor, Erika Bachiochi!
Erika is a fellow at the Ethics & Public Policy Center and a senior fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute, where she serves as the director of The Wollstonecraft Project. You can watch the full interview by viewing the playlist above.
As a Catholic scholar and loving mother of seven, one would hardly expect Erika’s personal story: Erika grew up in a home absent religion or a consistent father figure in her life. From a young age, she was exposed to substance abuse and experienced the tragic death of two close friends. When she began studying at Middlebury College in Massachusetts, Erika was a women’s studies major and considered herself an anti-Christian “socialist feminist.”
In her interview, Erika shares what pushed her to get help and eventually towards the Catholic faith. Her mind also began to open to other ways of thinking—particularly feminist theory—which led to her switching her major to political philosophy. Erika now has a M.A. from Boston College and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law and is a sought out intellectual on Equal Protection jurisprudence, feminist legal theory, Catholic social teaching, and sexual ethics.
Erika also discusses the main ideas behind her most recent book, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision, and gives a history of Mary Wollstonecraft—the woman whose philosophy the book draws upon. She covers many topics within her expertise and gives interesting perspectives on the four waves of feminism, the role of abortion within the women’s movement, the importance of shared parenthood between a mother and father, the relationship between government and the family, and much more.
Erika’s interview highlights the fact that the women’s movement has not always been what it is today, having lost its way during the onset of the Sexual Revolution, and that it’s time to return to “sex-realist” feminism—one that realizes both the differences and similarities between the sexes, yet calls them equally to virtuously fulfill the human duties required. This, Erika argues, is feminism that truly uplifts humanity and will promote changes in attitudes and relationships to end today’s often hostile and destructive gender politics.
Thank you, Erika, for all the work you are doing on behalf of women—and, by obvious extension, men—and families everywhere. You are an example of how feminism can work to produce happy, prosperous, and meaningful lives.
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