Stay-at-home daughter
Christian biblical womanhood movement
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The stay-at-home daughter (SAHD) movement is a subset of the biblical patriarchy[1] and biblical womanhood movements, particularly within the United States and New Zealand. Adherents believe that "daughters should never leave the covering of their fathers until and unless they are married."[2] This means preparing to be a wife and mother, eschewing education[1][3] outside the home and a career,[4][5] and according to Sarah Stankorb writing for Marie Claire, "complete subservience to their father".[5] For most stay-at-home daughters it involves a focus on the "domestic arts" such as cooking, cleaning and sewing.[6] Julie Ingersoll suggests that the purpose of stay-at-home daughters is to "learn to assist their future husbands as helpmeets in their exercise of dominion by practicing that role in their relationship with their father."[7]
The term stay-at-home daughter was popularized by Doug Phillips and his Vision Forum ministry,[2][5] which shut down operations after his confession of marital infidelity and allegations of sexual abuse.[8]
The key pioneers of this movement are the Botkin sisters, Anna Sofia and Elizabeth, who in 2005 wrote So Much More: The Remarkable Influence of Visionary Daughters on the Kingdom of God.[2] In 2026 they wrote an article apologizing for the book and stating that "We re-read it, almost two decades later, with better hermeneutics and a better understanding of church history and historic theology, and realized our entire case was exegetically hollow."[9]