barefoot and pregnant
Kept home, broke for shoes, and stuck having babies — a sexist jab at a woman's place.
Also called barefooted and pregnant, barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.
Updated September 21, 2026
barefoot and pregnant pronunciation
/BAIR-foot und PREG-nunt/
Meaning
Usually means a woman who stays on the home place, has little money or freedom to leave, and spends her years raising kids. Folks say it two ways. One is the old man-talk line: keep her barefoot and pregnant so she does not wander. The other is an outsider dig at rural Southern and Appalachian women, as if that look is the whole story. Either way, it lands mean more often than funny.
How folks use it
- “Uncle Ray still jokes that a good wife stays barefoot and pregnant, and Aunt Dot rolls her eyes every time.”
- “City folks talk like every girl from our holler ends up barefoot and pregnant, which is half stereotype and half insult.”
Origin and etymology
American phrase, not a cute folk saying. A Kansas country doctor, Arthur Hertzler, wrote a close form in 1938 about keeping a wife "barefooted and pregnant." A 1919 railway-meeting note already pinned a similar line on North Carolina mountaineers. Arkansas politician Paul Van Dalsem made the idea infamous in 1963 when he talked about getting a woman pregnant and keeping her barefoot. Ozark and Appalachian writers later called out "ignorant, barefoot, and pregnant" as the lazy stereotype outsiders stuck on hill women.
Frequently asked questions
Is barefoot and pregnant just a joke?
People crack it as a joke, but the joke is about control. Barefoot hints she has nowhere to go. Pregnant hints she is tied down with kids. Rural folks get tired of outsiders using it as a blanket picture of country women too.