Was Julia Child a Threat to Feminism?
Her success came with her husband by her side, after all.
Welcome to Salt, with Soul 2024. Each month, we explore a theme through essays, recipes, and more. The theme for January is “Julia” in honor of Julia Child. We’ll be exploring her life, learning her recipes, and finding inspiration in the way she lived with such gusto. You can learn more about the books, movies and our why here.
Julia Child was not considered a feminist of the second-wave movement.
Despite creating her television show, defying beauty norms, being married later in life, having a career of her own, and being a best-selling author, all before “The Feminine Mystique” was published, the second-wave feminist movement did not embrace Julia Child.
Where the feminist movement pushed women to be independent, Julia was rarely seen without Paul.
Where the feminist movement encouraged women to find their identity outside of the kitchen, Julia’s entire identity was rooted in her kitchen.
In every way of life, the feminist movement and Julia were on polar opposite sides. To some degree, there is ignorance of Julia when it comes to the feminist movement. The Season 2 episode of Julia on Max, “Shrimp & Grits” showcases how Julia’s career blinded her to the blatant inequalities women experienced. She was not allowed to sit at the table and enjoy the meal, even though she was the one invited to the White House. Julia was only there to film, and during her filming time, she had to stroke the ego of the male head chef. It wasn’t until a behind-closed-door moment with Zephyr Wright, that she realized a woman’s influence is often more subtle than her own. Julia had wake-up calls along the way that shifted her position, but never radically.
She created a life where she was the star: could we have expected her to truly understand what the fight was for? Or, was her marriage so different that she never experienced what the movement was fighting against?
What we often overlook in Julia’s story is the shared responsibility of building a life together.
You cannot find one article about Julia Child that does not mention Paul. If Julia was the star, Paul was the lighting director who made sure she shone the brightest. Finding each other later in life proved bountiful for Paul and Julia: they built a life that they enjoyed, without fussing too much about other’s opinions. Julia embraced Paul as an artist, and Paul embraced Julia as a woman exploring the world.
Whatever Julia was passionate about, Paul encouraged. During their time abroad in France, she took many classes before landing on cooking. In the early stages of her learning to cook, Paul was gracious with his opinions and ate her food even when it wasn’t great. When Julia started writing the book that would change the landscape of American cooking, Paul illustrated each recipe for her.
During the eight years it took for “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” to find a home, Paul built Julia a kitchen to her scale so she no longer had to bend over the counters while cooking for hours. There was no ego in her marriage.
The feminist movement that Julia lived through had to encourage hard edges and selfishness- it was the only thing that would wake up the masses of women who were sleepwalking through life. Ferociousness was the only way to gain attention. They could not embrace the truth of Julia’s life because it was so far off the Richter scale that women would find themselves sliding backward while chasing it.
As a woman, I am so grateful to those who fought for our rights. We’ve come a long way from women having to hide their pregnancies or fight to get into college. We overlook the significance of our education, considering so many women before us were denied that right.
In that same breath, when I envision the life I want for myself, it looks a lot more like Julia’s than Gloria’s.
A recent study on Tiktok, which just hit Instagram so who knows how recent it is, stated that only 4% of men have not changed their child’s diaper. In the 80s, that percentage was 48%. Men are more involved now, and women are not expected to stay at home with the kids and be Betty Homemaker. There are choices, and they are available to us. In sixty-two years, we’ve come so far. (of course, the systems are still flawed, what the fuck is with the rules of maternity leave, women are still not equal- I’m generalizing! I can’t fix the world, I can only share an idealist perspective. Send me a vagina hat- I’ll march with you!)
We’ve worked so hard to move the needle of our at-home lifestyle to be one of shared responsibilities: much like Julia and Paul.
In 2024, her story is the Feminist We Champion: She had a shared life where there was no ego, only encouragement. A life where the woman is successful and the responsibilities of “home” are shared. A life where wins are celebrated- regardless of scale. A life where they could be authentically themselves. Isn’t that the dream?
Isn’t the pursuit of a slow life, the pursuit of a life full of joy, passion, and discovery, just like Julia?
While the feminist movement taught women that they have a right to be “more” than a housewife, Julia taught women that life is more fulfilling when there’s joy.
Julia couldn’t be a feminist of the time, even though she was a trailblazer. It was from the power of her love that she found her greatest success: love for herself, and love for those she surrounded herself with. The magic of Julia was her vulnerability, and that is why she is still so captivating, years after her death.