What 'The Handmaid's Tale' Can Teach America About Motherhood

As the dystopian TV series comes to an end, it offers mothers a timely message.

While watching the first season of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” my heart raced with panic as June held her daughter Hannah in her arms tightly while she and her husband, Luke, fled the savagery of Gilead.

Sprinting through the woods, June and Hannah were caught and torn from one another in a scene every mother would be haunted by forever. In that instant, Gilead made clear its control over women and children.

In this patriarchal society on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” women were torn from their past lives, separated from their children and forced to fulfill duties. Handmaids — women who were assigned a child-bearing role based upon their reproductive capacity — were raped at the hands of their commander and his wife. The Hulu series is based on the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel of the same name.

The final season of the series, which is airing now, has proven especially timely amid the Trump administration. As the White House assesses ways to persuade women to have more children, Gilead feels closer to reality than ever before. Our government is being dismantled, and control of our bodies and our reproductive rights are being stripped from us without our consent — just like the handmaids. Our access to equal employment opportunities will fade as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) disappears from all aspects of our lives — and our children will grow up in a world where diversity is now criticized, placing children from marginalized communities at a disadvantage.

At the beginning of Season 6, June (Elisabeth Moss) and Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) embarked on their journey toward safety together. With tensions rising in Canada, they boarded a refugee train separately, each seeking safety: June fleeing Gilead after recently being the target of a hit-and-run attack and Serena fleeing the consequences of her controversial position in Gilead. I wondered if their past would render them incapable of supporting one another; June was once a victim of abuse in Serena’s home. But now, each of them had a baby to care for, and they were all each other had.