For Mom-in-Chief Michelle Obama and Women Everywhere, It’s About Choice

If there is one thing that most unfairly haunts women it is their career choices. Women around the world struggle with what career path to take after graduating from college. And once they've chosen that path they face any number of other obstacles. When I marry should I leave my job? When I decide to have children, should I be a working mom or stay home? If I choose to stay home, when is an appropriate time to re-enter the workforce?

All of these questions make a woman's work life a complicated and very personal thing. It is for this reason I must disagree with my colleague at Thomas Jefferson St., Bonnie. She takes issue with Michelle Obama and her handlers for calling her "Mom-in-chief." Bonnie says she is not a feminist, antifeminist, Republican or Democrat, but I do know she supports women's rights. In my view the most fundamental right women (and men) have is to make their own decisions. Women have successfully advanced in the working world, but we still deserve the right to make our own choices. Just because Michelle Obama is an attorney doesn't mean she can't make the decision to stay at home and support her husband and look after her children. She chose her own path—and that is the truest measure of the success of the women's movement.

Working outside of the home has long been an issue for women. We were judged for doing it and Michelle Obama is being judged for not doing it. Not only is that not fair, it's anti-women's rights. 

• Click here to read more by Morgan E. Felchner.
• Click here to read Michelle Obama's first person essay about being first lady.
• Click here to read more about Michelle Obama.
• Click here to re ad more by Bonnie Erbe.