Vance Comments On Mother-In-Law, Indian Traditions Emerge – Unfavorably

India-West News Desk
NEW YORK, NY – The Republican running mate of Donald Trump, JD Vance, has again caught the attention of women voters. In recent weeks, after having faced ire and scrutiny for his controversial comments about “childless cat ladies” made to Tucker Carlson in 2021, forcing him to repeatedly explain and defend his views on women and family roles, comes another quote from the recent past.

This time about his mother-in-law and Indian culture.

During a 2020 podcast appearance, Vance whose wife Usha is Indian American, discussed the role of his mother-in-law, a biology professor in California, who took a sabbatical to help care for his newborn child. It was noted in the conversation that such intergenerational support is common in Indian culture, where families often share childcare responsibilities.

However, the host of the podcast framed this cultural practice as a “weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman,” to which Vance agreed. He recounted his mother-in-law’s decision to take time off work, calling it “painfully economically inefficient.” Vance argued that, from an economic perspective, it would have been more efficient for her to remain employed and use her wages to hire childcare, criticizing this as a product of “hyper-liberalized economics.”

Vance seemed to be making a larger point about societal values and economic priorities. Yet during the conversation, when the podcast host said in theory the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female is to take care of their grandchildren, Vance agreed.

The idea that the primary role of grandmothers is to raise grandchildren has gone down as not only offensive but also dismissive of the many roles and choices available to women beyond child-rearing