November 12, 2025
Should mothers work outside the home? If you want a more solid answer than unsubstantiated internet opinions or conveniently vague opinions that appeal to personal acumen, this is the podcast for you.
Margaret McCarthy joins the Catholic Culture Podcast to discuss her essay on why anti-discrimination laws’ treatment of men and women as abstract, interchangeable units hurts real women, real men, and real children (and real workplaces!). Next, we explore the neglected teachings of John Paul II and previous popes about the objectively different relationships of men and women to work at home and outside the home.
Margaret Harper McCarthy is an associate professor of theological anthropology at the Pope John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Studies at the Catholic University of America. She is the editor of Humanum: Issues in Family, Culture, and Science, serves on the English editorial board of Communio: International Catholic Review, is a member of the Catholic Academy of Theology, and is an advisor to the Committee on Doctrine of the USCCB.
00:00 Introduction
2:30 Anti-discrimination laws discriminate against real women, children, men, and the workplace
34:30 Gender differences: role division and customs
1:03:43 Catholic teachings on working mothers
1:33:08 Birth control and public life vs. real female genius
link
Margaret H. McCarthy, “(Just) Sex Discrimination Lawsuits.”
https://newpolitity.com/blog/sex-discrimination
Thomas’ article quoting John Paul II and previous popes about working mothers
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/why-young-catholics-are-rejecting-feminism-pt-2/
Hunum review https://humanumreview.com/
Other articles mentioned include:
Helen Andrews “Lean Out” https://americanmind.org/features/rule-not-by-lies/lean-out/
Maria Bear, “Women may have it all, but can their children?”
https://ifstudies.org/blog/maybe-women-can-have-it-all-but-can-their-kids
Matthew Meehan “Wanted: A Man with a Purpose”
https://americanmind.org/features/restoring-single-sex-education-at-vmi-and-beyond/wanted-men-of-Purpose/
The ordinance document contains the following statement:
Realm Novarum, Divini Ilius Magistri, Quadrasisimo Anno, Laborem Excelsence, Familiaris Consortio
Pope Pius XII’s address to couples, Dear newlyweds,
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=12716
Ratzinger/CDF, “On the Cooperation of Men and Women in the Church and the World” https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040731_collaboration_en.html
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