Stay-at-home daughter


The stay-at-home daughter movement is a subset of the biblical patriarchy and biblical womanhood movements, particularly within the United States. Adherents believe that "daughters should never leave the covering of their fathers until and unless they are married." This means preparing to be a wife and mother, as well as eschewing a university education. According to Kendra Weddle Irons and Melanie Springer Mock, for most stay-at-home daughters this involves a focus on the "domestic arts" such as cooking, cleaning and sewing. The movement, however, emphasizes women who are "educated, empowered, and strong". Julie Ingersoll suggests that the purpose of stay-at-home daughters is to "learn to assist their future husbands as helpmeets in their exercise of dominion by practicing that role in their relationship with their father."
The key pioneers of this movement are the Botkin sisters, Anna Sofia and Elizabeth, who in 2005 wrote So Much More: The Remarkable Influence of Visionary Daughters on the Kingdom of God. The Botkins have noted, however, that "Christian Young Womanhood" is "not about staying at home".
Gina McGalliard argues that "most stay-at-home daughters can't truly be said to have chosen this lifestyle" since they "are often brought up in homes where feminism, college, and a woman's independent choices are vilified."