Announcing our 2024 Summer Read-Along

A book we desperately need at this moment in time

I’ve written over 200 of these little letters on Substack, but my most popular has been a critique of Matt Fradd speaking with Carrie Gress. The interview left me feeling quite disheartened, but the response made me feel empowered.

Because those of us that run in trad circles¹ see a creeping peculiarity: a push-back on modern culture that is starting to feel a bit nefarious. I don’t like the way modern culture is heading, they will say, and we will nod along in agreement. We, too, wish more people went to church. We, too, wish more people understood that the point of life isn’t Instagram reels or popularity contests. We, too, wish more people valued the nuclear family and realized what a great, great gift kiddos are.

But then suddenly they’re also talking about, like, women not being able to vote or lead Bible studies.

It gives the yikes.

It also reminds us, however, that culture has always been and will always be full of opposing ideas, some of which are steeped in misogyny and fear-mongering. And instead of throwing fits and calling names and propping ourselves up, perhaps the best response is to learn and listen and have discourse and pray and drink wine with people we don’t always agree with. To take a deep breath and steep ourselves in wisdom and prudence. To understand what we fear and what other people fear and how we can work out those fears together. I can easily get triggered and start stomping my feet but I’d rather take my cues from the women in the past who have fought so fiercely for women’s rights in a way that had a lasting impact.

There are a few Catholic writers who are insta-clicks for me, and one of those is the formidable Erika Bachiochi, a lawyer, mom, and Catholic writer. This summer, we’ll be reading her book The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision.

Because this book is all of those things.

It’s intellectual, it’s patient, and it’s inspiring. Erika is not a burn-it-all-down writer, like I have the unfortunate tendency of being. She’s thoughtful, curious, and so dang smart. This book is thoroughly researched and will leave you wanting to don suffrage white.

The book description: Erika Bachiochi explores the development of feminist thought in the United States. Inspired by the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, Bachiochi presents the intellectual history of a lost vision of women’s rights, seamlessly weaving philosophical insight, biographical portraits, and constitutional law to showcase the once predominant view that our rights properly rest upon our concrete responsibilities to God, self, family, and community. Bachiochi proposes a philosophical and legal framework for rights that builds on the communitarian tradition of feminist thought as seen in the work of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Jean Bethke Elshtain. Drawing on the insight of prominent figures such as Sarah Grimké, Frances Willard, Florence Kelley, Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Mary Ann Glendon², this book is unique in its treatment of the moral roots of women’s rights in America and its critique of the movement’s current trajectory. The Rights of Women provides a synthesis of ancient wisdom and modern political insight that locates the family’s vital work at the very center of personal and political self-government. Bachiochi demonstrates that when rights are properly understood as a civil and political apparatus born of the natural duties we owe to one another, they make more visible our personal responsibilities and more viable our common life together. This smart and sophisticated application of Wollstonecraft’s thought will serve as a guide for how we might better value the culturally essential work of the home and thereby promote authentic personal and political freedom. The Rights of Women will interest students and scholars of political theory, gender and women’s studies, constitutional law, and all readers interested in women’s rights.

If you’re thinking uh, that sounds kind of hard to read, that’s why we’re reading it together! Last year we leaned hard into the spiritual side of justice by reading The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day, and this year I’d really like to explore the idea of those “natural duties we owe to one another” and how to “promote authentic personal and political freedom”. It is quite intellectual and heady, but I’m a girl who really struggles to understand what the heck Pope Benedict 16 is ever talking about and I made it through. So I know you can too—and we’ll help each other!

Each month we’ll have a letter with brief commentary from me, some art that I find complimentary to the section we read, and a robust comments section discussion. In past years, people have even formed local groups in their churches or at their colleges to participate in the read along together. (Last year, we utilized Substack’s chat feature. I didn’t particularly like it to be honest, so this year we’re going back to good ole-fashioned comments section discourse!) In September, Erika has very generously offered to join us on Zoom for some post-reading discussion.

The read-along will only be available to full subscribers. (Of course, you can always read the book! But the monthly commentaries/discussions will only be available to full subscribers.)

The reason is not because I want to treat myself to daily ventis at Starbucks, but because in order for me to craft and lead this read-along well, I need to be compensated for it. Thanks for understanding. Like I said, you can obviously read the book without upgrading + be with us in spirit. You could even still start a book club around it and just create your own materials!

Since this is an academic book, it’s a bit pricier. I encourage snagging the paperback version directly from Notre Dame Press here, buying it at Barnes and Noble here, or requesting your library order you a copy (but fair warning, you might be tempted to do a lot of highlighting.) The paperback is much cheaper than the hardcover!

I know it seems early, but summer will be here before we know it + I want to give you plenty of time to snag the book. Our reading schedule is as follows:

May 15: Introduction, Chapters 1-2

June 15: Chapters 3-5

July 15: Chapters 6-8

August 15: Chapters 9-10

September date TBD: A Zoom call with author Erika Bachiochi

If you are a full subscriber who is NOT interested in the read along, you can unsubscribe from the specific “Read-Alongs” section so I don’t clog your inbox. Here are the steps on how to do so (if you’re having difficulty, please reach out to Substack support.)

Happy reading!

In Him Through Her,

Claire

1. Full disclosure: I’m married to someone I would consider a trad. Some of our best friends are trads. I was recently told that I am a trad by someone who knows both me and the state of the Catholic Church quite well, so perhaps I am one! But I also had a friend call me tradsmatic last year and honestly, that phrase just clicks with me. I want the priest to face away from me but I also really want some praise and worship music? I’m not going to veil but I do enjoy mass in a building that looks like it regularly hosts coronations? If you so much as try and change a single word in the consecration I will grumble but I will absolutely pray over you missionary-style if I’m feeling the spirit? She’s a conundrum, folks!

2. If you just read some of those names and are thinking “Um, I want to take absolutely nothing from those women,” fear not! I am in the same boat! Let’s tackle it together!