Newsletter 01 | Introducing Hearth Matters
A warm welcome from Erin & Kathryn
My Parallel Path to Hearth Matters and Motherhood
Earlier this year, my then-fiancé and I were planning our summer wedding and hoping to get pregnant right away.
I pictured myself at home raising three or four kids and running our household. I also had a newfound and deep sense that my career would thrive through motherhood, not in spite of it. The dream job I imagined would be home-based, flexible, and focused on empowering other moms to achieve the same for themselves and their families.
These were pretty radical insights for me. For most of my 20’s, until the primal urge to have a baby kicked in around my 28th birthday, I could be quoted saying things like “I want two, max.” That my ideal timing for a first child was “not until at least 30.” And in my mind, I associated “stay-at-home mom” with professional failure.
I knew the privilege of growing up with my own mom at home full-time, and we had always had a great relationship. So, where did my low opinion of stay-at-home mothers come from? I began to question my understanding of motherhood and what it means to be a woman. I wanted to know why an increasing percentage of young women—my sisters, friends, co-workers, and myself once included–put off having children or forgo them altogether. These are the inquiries that led me to Kathryn Lukas-Damer.
When we first met through an online forum, Kathryn and I discovered that we had each been trying to make sense of similar issues from two different perspectives–Kathryn, the Gen-X matriarch, and myself, the Millennial mom-to-be. Our instant connection was based on a simple shared desire: to build a better future for our children. I left our introductory meeting feeling exactly as Kathryn’s former executive assistant of many years, Teresa, recently put it.
I believe in Kathryn. She has one of the purest souls and truest intentions of anyone I’ve ever met. She truly lives to be a servant leader, and wants to leave a legacy for future generations.
I got to know Kathryn as an entrepreneur with decades of experience in the food industry, as a student of history and traditional cultures, and, of course, as a mother who adores her 40-year-old son. She taught me about the significance of the hearth, the once-physical, now-symbolic heart of a home, where we share food, care, and wisdom. She explained how marketmade narratives devalue the women who were once revered for their caregiving expertise, connecting the economic vulnerability of full-time mothers and householders to the low status assigned to them in our social hierarchies. Her words spoke directly to my internalized views about stay-at-home mothers in a way I hadn’t yet recognized, and that’s when things started to really click. This, I thought, was a story that needs to be told.
Through many hours of juicy conversation, Kathryn eloquently presented the huge body of research that inspired her to reimagine hearth and informed a plan to realign the domestic sphere, or the private realm of ‘home,’ with human flourishing in the 21st century. The more I listened to her ideas for the future, the more certain I became of two things: there was no one else addressing our modern ills with practical, scalable solutions like the ones Kathryn described to me, and I was all in on working to make this woman’s vision come to life.
Over the next six months, Kathryn and I formed a true partnership, gestating a new nonprofit that we are pleased to officially introduce to you today. As Hearth Matters co-founder and executive director, I’m very happy to report that I have landed my dream job–read about our core initiatives, and you'll see exactly why–and in a beautiful parallel, my husband and I are preparing to welcome our baby girl to the world, due May 2024.
Our very first in-person meeting was also the Hearth Matters founding retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, April 2023.
First, Thank You.
Kathryn and I are honored that you’re here to bear witness to the birth and future growth of Hearth Matters. Your support truly means the world to us, because we know it takes a village to drive the change we wish to see.
So, What is Hearth Matters?
We are a new nonprofit committed to finding solutions that elevate the social and economic status of full-time householders and mothers.
We think there is a clear link between many of our modern ills and our relentless pursuit of progress, which may have caused us to lose sight of the pivotal role home and hearth play in our lives, and in a flourishing society.
We believe now is the time to re-value, re-think, and re-source the domestic sphere.
Our vision is a world in which the essential caregiving activities performed in our homes are acknowledged for their significance to our species’ survival. Our mission is to reduce social and economic barriers to motherhood and householding through education, home-based businesses, and an economic model that supports interdependent communities. Three core initiatives—LEARN, EARN, and CONNECT—are how we start to deliver meaningful change in the domestic sphere.
LEARN imparts and valorizes the human flourishing skills and expertise required to manage a 21st century household. EARN focuses on home-based business training, mentorship, and resourcing to empower mothers and householders to make a living while making home. And with CONNECT, we're pioneering a Neighbor to Neighbor Network, a homemade answer to market-driven models. Ours is similar to sharing economy models but is owned by members rather than shareholders, which we believe prioritizes human flourishing over mere profits.
Our First Publication: The Hearth Matters Chapbook Series
The Hearth Matters Chapbook series is the foundation of Hearth Matters, its origin story and our vision for the future of home and hearth. Drawing inspiration from 16th century grassroots storytellers who used ‘chapbooks' to share their ideas with "the people," we've chosen to convey the Hearth Matters story with a modern take on this ages-old format–in digital form. Our chapbooks are most similar to a digital magazine, with lots of visuals to make for quick 15-minute reads to be enjoyed with a cup of tea.
Those of you who know Kathryn personally understand me when I say she’s a visionary founder (read: perfectionist) through and through, which means she wasn’t afraid to change directions when middle-of-the-night musings offered new clarity and upgrades to her vision. “The medium is the message” is a sentiment Kathryn kept at the forefront throughout the development process. After multiple iterations and formats, we finally landed on the right version for this moment in time. We hope you enjoy reading these chapbooks as much as we enjoyed creating them!
Today, the Hearth Matters Series comprises three parts. In Hearthstory, we look backwards in time for possible answers to how we should navigate the new and increasingly complex information era. In Part II, we introduce ourselves as the first card-carrying members of Householder Feminism, a new movement that represents all women’s interest in the domestic sphere. In Part III, Domesteconomy, we lay out our big idea: a homemade alternative to market-made products and services, supported by a Neighbor-to-Neighbor network.
You’ll be the first to know when our next chapbooks are released. We sincerely value your feedback and hope you’ll share our work with anyone who might be interested in the future of home and hearth.
What Else We’ve Been Up To:
Last month, Kathryn had a chance to catch up briefly with Mary Harrington in the UK and chat about Householder Feminism. Mary’s book, Feminism Against Progress, is a Hearth Matters favorite, and we highly recommend her Substack, Reactionary Feminist, for more of her brilliant writing on culture and politics. In the very near future, we’ll bring her voice to you directly through our podcast.
Speaking of experts who have informed our thinking at Hearth Matters, we’ve put together a living Resource Library of curated articles, books, podcast episodes and documentaries to help you explore different aspects of hearth, human flourishing, and householder feminism.
Here’s what we’re listening to this week:
Coming Soon: Our New Hearth Matters Podcast, Householder’s How-To Guides & The Hearth Forum
The Hearth Matters Podcast is launching SOON!
Our first three podcast episodes will explore the concepts introduced in our chapbook series in greater detail. We have some incredible guest interviews lined up next. In addition to interviews with the most important thinkers in this space, we’ll soon introduce a talk show format that will feature regular contributors and listener Q&As.
The Householder’s How-To Guides
As Householder Feminists, we are committed to finding realistic, deployable solutions. That’s where our Householder’s How-To Guides come in. We’ll provide practical, actionable resources for parents and householders on everything from how to start a home-based restaurant to how to choose the right education model for your children.
The Hearth Forum
Our online gathering place is where we connect with you, our community. Where we explore and innovate new ideas that we hope will drive meaningful change in the domestic sphere. Hosted on Mighty Network, The Hearth Forum will also be home to our growing library of resources. We warmly invite you to join us there, knowing that the conversations will be richer with your participation.
Join Us in Taking Action
Once again, thanks for being here.
Now more than ever, we have the resources, skills, and wisdom to imagine and build something better–together. Time is short and the stakes are high. This is not the time to be tearing systems down. Now is the time to come together and leverage our collective strengths to build better systems–to create homegrown solutions that coexist peacefully with the system and eventually replace old models that no longer serve us with new ones that prioritize and encourage human flourishing.
The world needs builders right now. We need you. If the Hearth Matters vision sparks you, this is the time to build your voice into our mission. We’re interested in talking with researchers, thinkers, householders and women who are thinking about, or working in the domestic sphere. Reach out here on Substack or email us directly: hearthmatters@gmail.com.
With love,
Erin & Kathryn
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To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. –Buckminster Fuller