The internet has erupted over the viral commencement speech of Kansas City Chiefs’ kicker Harrison Butker at Benedictine College.

As other writers here have pointed out, he spoke to a sympathetic audience of traditionalist Catholics who likely already agreed with his sentiments on morality and vocation. But many women and men recoiled online at what they believed to be regressive comments from the football star. A petition has since garnered tens of thousands of signatures urging the NFL to fire him. Here were his triggering remarks:

For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing achievement. You should be proud of all that you have achieved at this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.

I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and a mother. I am on this stage and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation. . . . It cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife and embrace one of the most-important titles of all: homemaker.

Critics have gone to great lengths to misinterpret Butker. They argue that he pigeonholes women, even though he acknowledges explicitly that not all will pursue domesticity (“Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world”). They’ve also criticized his character, painting him as some gross misogynist who wants to reimpose the patriarchy and drag women back into the kitchen. Overcome with love and gratitude, Butker choked up as he attributed his life’s accomplishments to his wife, Isabelle.

Some have fixated on the “diabolical lies” part of his speech. Is there any doubt that society has relegated the homemaker to a ridiculed position of weakness and wasted potential? The “girl boss” expectation is drilled into most modern women from a young age.

Yet women report high dissatisfaction with the corporate grind. Many of my friends from college went into occupations that they openly admit are draining and soul-sucking. Over half of women (56 percent) say their mental health suffers to the point of burnout because of their job, according to a CNBC and Momentive “Women at Work” survey from last March. During the pandemic, their unhappiness gave rise to “lazy girl jobs,” generally nontechnical remote roles that offer flexibility and work–life balance, minimal co-worker interaction, and decent compensation.

Some have blasted Butker for failing to emphasize women’s right to choose their own path. Of course, women are not a monolith. But Butker never said that. The point is that no other choice for women but career is seriously entertained by our culture. A peer once confessed to me that it would scandalize her family if she didn’t go into finance and didn’t wait until her late 30s to have kids. Nothing else was ever put on her radar. Homemaking has been so stigmatized that those who do it are treated like social pariahs.

In a 1955 letter to Mrs. Johnson, C. S. Lewis wrote:

I think I can understand that feeling about a housewife’s work being like that of Sisyphus (who was the stone rolling gentleman). But it is surely, in reality, the most important work in the world. What do ships, railways, mines, cars, government etc. exist for except that people may be fed, warmed, and safe in their own homes? As Dr Johnson said, “To be happy at home is the end of all human endeavour’” (1st to be happy, to prepare for being happy in our own real Home hereafter: 2nd, in the meantime, to be happy in our houses.) We wage war in order to have peace, we work in order to have leisure, we produce food in order to eat it. So your job is the one for which all others exist.

This is the spirit of Butker’s speech. Rather than patronize women by prescribing their path, he elevated homemaking to what should be its rightful place of honor in our republic. And he didn’t negate the value of the college degrees of female listeners, either.

While they can share their knowledge with the workforce, women can also share their knowledge with arguably even better beneficiaries: children. The daughter of an Ivy League mother and a West Point father, I can attest that I learned so much from wise and intelligent parents. My mother’s college education would not have been in vain even if she hadn’t spent years in the workforce.

After joining one of the first classes of Yale that accepted women, then becoming a Wall Street executive, she retired early to raise her triplets. Though her company encouraged her to stay on board, she decided to stay home with her babies.

While she built an impressive career, she rarely talked about it during my childhood. This Mother’s Day, I surprised her by flying to Florida and showing up at her front door late at night. When she saw me, she burst into happy tears. No disrespect to her previous banking employer, but the greatest fulfillment of her life came and still comes from her children. Butker’s family felt similarly, and it is not controversial for him to cherish that.