19 Kids and Counting - The Limited Roles of Women in the "Quiverfull" Religion

Since the fall of 2008, TLC has run a show documenting the fundamental religious the Duggars. They are part of a small religious sect called the Quiverfulls; they are called that because their philosophy is to produce as many children as possible and send them out like “arrows” to spread the word of God. While the Duggars, the poster family for the religion, have smiles on their faces and appear happy, it is much more darker than that. Not only are the Duggars homophobic (last year they tried to get rid of LGBT rights and the oldest Duggar son works for the Family Research Council, an anti-gay hate group) but also they are very sexist.

The Duggars have a strict binary they follow. Like something out of the 1950’s, men are expected to go out in the workforce and women are to stay home and raise children. While these roles are fine if chosen, like Jim Bob and Michele Duggar did, it is wrong to enforce these roles on their 19 children.

From the moment they come into the world, a child’s role is already determined. If they are male, they will have a variety of careers and dreams to choose from. If they are female, they will be raised from the moment they learn to walk to become a housewife, or if they choose to do something outside of this, a midwife or a nurse. The children are not allowed to watch television, movies or read  books unless it’s religious and adheres by their strict gender roles. One of the books on the girls reading list is Before You Meet Prince Charming. The book preaches that women shouldn’t engage in premarital sex, and then goes onto compare women to objects. The book The Reverend Spy, the book on the boy’s reading list, doesn’t say anything similar.

The Duggars have strict roles in the household; the girls are never seen wearing pants, only skirts. The boys all dress masculine. When they become of dating age, they have to be chaperoned, but because this is both evident for the boy and the girl children, this isn’t sexist. Michele Duggar promotes a “servant-like” position for wives, in her quote below.

 Audience reactions to the Duggar family have been overwhelmingly positive, but as people see through their masks, the reactions are garnering less praise. The reason the Duggars have such a solid fan base is because of how they present. On television, they are not emotionally abusive or state their outlandish and sexist beliefs. They might say them in an interview, but never on TLC. It’s a shame how the adults force gender roles and limited options on the girls, because they can be so much more in life then what has been told to them since they were young.