Washington D.C., Oct 16, 2018 / 04:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Following a comment by President Emmanuel Macron, in which he expressed skepticism that any well-educated woman would decide to have many children, women with large families have been using the “#PostcardsForMacron” hashtag to send the French president pictures of their happy families.
Speaking about high fertility rates in Africa during a Gates Foundation “Goalkeepers” event held in New York City Sept. 25-26, Macron compared having a large family with forcing a girl to be married as a child.
Macron stated that when women are educated, they do not have many children.
“I always say: ‘Present me the woman who decided, being perfectly educated, to have seven, eight or nine children,” said Macron.
“Please present me with the young girl who decided to leave school at 10 in order to be married at 12.’”
In response, many women took issue with the French president’s apparent disbelief that academically successful women would choose to be mothers of several children.
Dr. Catherine R. Pakaluk, a professor of social research and economics at the Catholic University of America, started the hashtag by sharing a photo of herself and six of her eight children.
Postcards for Macron #postcardsforMacron pic.twitter.com/fmX1vzITpv
— Catherine R Pakaluk (@CRPakaluk) October 16, 2018
She followed up that tweet explaining that she holds both a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Harvard University and has, as she phrased it, “Eight children by choice.”
Her post garnered thousands of views, and other women followed her lead, including Beth Hockel, a “Stanford graduate, electrical engineer, mom of 11.”
Stanford graduate, electrical engineer, mom of 11. #postcardsforMacron pic.twitter.com/Gl1Py63j7v
— Beth Hockel (@ehockel1) October 16, 2018
Catholic writer Elizabeth Foss shared a picture of her nine children, saying “Yes, they’re all mine. And so is my (University of Virginia) degree.”
Yes, they’re all mine. And so is my UVa degree. #postcardsforMacron pic.twitter.com/dROzkKq1md
— elizabeth foss (@elizabethfoss) October 16, 2018
Men joined in as well, sharing pictures of their wives and their own mothers.
“Check out my educated and inspiring wife and mom of 7,” tweeted writer Josh Canning, along with a picture of his family.
#DearEmmanuelMacron check out my educated and inspiring wife and mom of 7. #postcardsforMacron pic.twitter.com/Ucp5eizIMa
— Josh Canning (@CatholicJosh) October 16, 2018
Several people pointed out that philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe was a mother of seven, and yet still taught at Oxford and Cambridge.
Dear @EmmanuelMacron This is the Oxford and Cambridge philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe. She is widely considered one of the greatest 20th century philosophers. She had seven children. #PostcardsforMacron pic.twitter.com/slZZptPsGv
— Samuel Gregg (@DrSamuelGregg) October 16, 2018
While Macron made the remarks at the end of September, his comments on family size gained media traction on Monday, following a report in the Guardian newspaper.
Macron himself does not have any children, but his wife has three children from her first marriage.
The Macrons met when the future French president was 15 years old, his future wife Brigitte Trogneux was his teacher.
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Macron isn’t a total dunce and hasn’t ruined France entirely. He simply doesn’t know much about the US. Large families in the US are more likely to be desired by people that like them and can afford them – and most of them are educated. Go to any “traditional” parish (Latin or ad orientum mass) and you’ll see the natalists with the brood looking pretty good. I’d guess there are counterparts in France.
yes of course we, large family, do exist in France, and not only in “traditional” parish ! i’m proud of my 8 children!!!!!
Hello my friends!
I am French and so proudly mother of 9 children!
I am olso a well educated woman and a teacher of theology! My children are nice , intelligent and open minded! Thanks to all of you for the lovely photos, showing that you can be happy with a numerous family!stephanie
Two entirely different realms….mildly affluent large families and large families in poverty regions. Brazil and Phillipines have child sex trafficking problems due to street waifs which results from poverty families having too large families. Mia Farrow, Mel Gibson, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Angelina Jolie are a third category…wealthy celebrities having large families because there is no danger of non support. Three categories….mildly affluent large families….poverty region large families…wealthy large families. Macron was really thinking about the poverty large families of Africa but then he conflated that real problem with a non problem area…mildly affluent large families. Humanae Vitae and Casti Connubii do not tell impoverished people to have families too large for their income. It takes faith for mildly affluent families to have large families but for an impoverished family to do so invites tragedy as we have seen in the famines of the Sudan/Somalia area in which hundreds of thousands of children have in fact starved to death. Donors of food could not reach them because rogue militaries would seize donated food.
Hmmmm, how did the world ever survive prior to contraceptives? Amazing.
Also, the horror of starvation is not brought about by or continued by the existence of large families, but by the scarcity of food. The solution is better, advanced farming methods, among other things.
But to address Macorn, his zero child mentality is quite predictable. Most of his EU peers have no children. And they are, of course, so very, very intelligent and know what’s best for the world.
“Donors of food could not reach them because rogue militaries would seize donated food.”
That, and not large families, was the main problem.
I have no college degree yet still consider myself educated. We have seven children, and in case you did not know it a college degree does not make an educated person and many times make them with a sense of being above others, looking down on those that are educated through their life experiences. If they are in the trades they make a good living through working hard.
Does the French president realize that having a population that is not even replacing itself leads big trouble and the need to import workers, in heir case Muslims…which has caused more problems than it has helped.
“The Macrons met when the future French president was 15 years old, his future wife Brigitte Trogneux was his teacher.”
Yes, it started with child abuse by the teacher. It’s an utterly creepy story.
We have 6 children ages 9-20. My husband has 3 college degrees and I have 2.