Is there a common attitude society has towards women, and their roles as mothers? Betty Rollin, American journalist, reporter, and author, believes there is. She calls it the motherhood myth. She writes about this subject in her essay, “Motherhood: Who Needs It?” The myth is the idea that all normal women want and need to become mothers (Rollin 286). Rollin believes this is false, and argues that there is no biological drive or instinct, that makes women want to become mothers. Society reinforces this myth into us, through many forms of propaganda. Rollin argues against the belief that women’s most important role in life is to become a wife, and mother. She calls for the freedom to choose, and explains that becoming a mother is not an obligation you must fulfill, but a choice you must determine thoughtfully. Rollin also discusses the many reasons why motherhood is not a path many would like to follow, and lists the numerous adverse effects it has. While Rollin presents professional perspectives, and several evidences from reliable sources, there are many areas she ignores that do not support her point. Jessica Hopkins, a college student, points some of them out in her essay, “When Babies Aren’t Enough: Analysis of Motherhood: Who Needs It”. Hopkins believes that Rollin's passage was extreme, and might be viewed as ridiculous by the average women. She states that while society influences us in many ways, a mothers desire to have children is not one of them. (Hopkins par. 5) In her article, Rollin specifically mentions the false presumptions that mothering is a biological instinct. Psychoanalyst, Dr. Frederick, is quoted saying “When a woman says with feeling that she craved her baby from within, she is putting into biological lang... ... middle of paper ... ...wn, women didn’t have all the opportunities they have today. Rollin’s article was written in the 1970, and she fights the battles they had to fight back then, one of them being the belief that women must be confided to raising children as their only purpose in life. She argues for the right to choose. However, Rollin takes an extreme stance when she declares that we should stop procreating, and that mothers are miserable. There were many areas that she ignored that would have otherwise contradicted her arguments. Works Cited Hopkins, Jessica. “When Babies Aren’t Enough: Analysis of Motherhood: Who Needs It?”. http://www.jmu.edu/evision. James Madison University. April 2013. Web. 4 Apr. 2014 Rollin, Betty. “Motherhood: Who Needs It?” The Norton Reader. 13th ed. ED. Linda Peterson, et al. New York: W.W Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 286-295. Print.
Dahlan, Hannah. "Older Mothers: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!" Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
W. S. Ross once said “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” As simple as this quip may sound, its complex implications are amplified through the life of every person born since the beginning of humanity. What attribute makes a mother such an extraordinary influence over her young? One such attribute is the ability to nurture. Beyond the normal challenges of cooking, cleaning, schooling, singing, feeding, and changing is the motivation by which such sacrifices are made possible. One cannot raise a child without mutual respect. Emotion and anxiety must drive her instincts. Her ability to foster is only heightened by minute personal imperfections and overwhelming responsibility that lead to a lack of confidence. Yet the prevailing characteristic that separates a ‘birth giver’ from a ‘mother’ is the unconditional, undying, and at times underestimated love for her child. To be a mother in the purest sense, she must embrace this notion of nurture.
When I was a teen, my mother gave birth to two children, a female (Tamber) and a male (Avery), nineteen months apart. As the two became more mature, my parent’s desire to place each child in the
In the book “There Are No Children Here” by Alex Kotlowitz, the author followed the lives of two young brothers (Lafayette and Pharoah) while they grew up in the harsh streets of Chicago in the late 1980’s. The author uses the story of the two boys’ lives to discuss the social divide in our very own society and to persuade readers that there is a major problem in “the projects” of the United States.
There is perhaps no greater joy in life than finding one’s soul mate. Once found, there is possibly no greater torment than being forced to live without them. This is the conflict that Paul faces from the moment he falls in love with Agnes. His devotion to the church and ultimately God are thrown into the cross hairs with the only possible outcome being one of agonizing humiliation. Grazia Deledda’s The Mother presents the classic dilemma of having to choose between what is morally right and being true to one’s own heart. Paul’s inability to choose one over the other consumes his life and everyone in it.
Women throughout time have been compelled to cope with the remonstrances of motherhood along with society’s anticipations
In Of Woman Born, Adrienne Rich effectively weaves her own story into a convincing account of what it means to become a mother within the bonds of patriarchal culture. Her conclusion that the institution of motherhood, which she distinguishes from motherhood, must be destroyed in order to release the creation and sustenance of life into the same realm of decision, struggle, surprise, imagination, and conscious intelligence, as any other difficult, but freely chosen work is substantiated by her courageous confession that contradicts culturally normative notions of motherhood.
“All over the world there exists in every society a small group of women who feel themselves strongly attracted to give care to other women during pregnancy and childbirth. Failure to make use of this group of highly motivated people is regrettable and a sin against the principle of subsidiarity.”
As history and technology changes, the pre conceived notion, and mold for a woman’s role in society is drastically redesigned in accordance to what becomes deemed as socially accepted. From even as current as years of adolescence the “traditional” role of a housewife was instilled in youth, but when factors such as technology, and the economic collapse, these traditional roles were quickly discarded. Women now had to grasp the concept of supporting a family, and in some instances coming home to a stay at home husband due to lack of job demand, and with the rapid growth in technology and inescapable access to technology younger generations of women are no longer depending nor fixed on the notion of fulfilling a traditional mold. Instead with
to the conclusion at one point that the whole thing was hopeless because it is a biological fact women have babies and that is always a career breaker. I end this paper rather disappointed that now, as it was centuries ago,are allowing their lives to be run by male views and stereotypes. The world is moving forward but unless women stop allowing
Most of women with children need to find the balance between work and family. In most families, mothers have to use more time to take care of their kids than fathers do. “About four-in-ten working mothers (42%) say that at some point in their working life, they had reduced their hours in order to care for a child or other family member, while just 28% of working fathers say they had done the same” (Parker, 2015) So these mothers cannot only focus on their work and career. Pregnancy is a question that need to be taken into consideration for women who want to have their first or another baby. Pregnancy will reduce their efficiency and also keep women from work. Therefore, “many employers often hesitate to recruit women as they feel that pregnancy may keep them away from work.”(Shukla,
Wilcox, W., & Dew, J. (2011). Motherhood and marriage: A response. Journal of Marriage and Family, 73, 29-32. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00786.x
In her essay, “Motherhood: Who Needs It?”, Betty Rollin emphasizes the pressures of motherhood that society puts on women and highlights the fact that becoming a mother is not a natural instinct.
Whether in an unstable or stable society, mothers and births should always be present. Motherhood might make a woman insane, but in time the child makes her sane. In Brave New World ? A Defense of Paradise-Engineering, David Pearce states the overall reason for Ford’s beliefs on motherhood and birth: “…it is suggested that the price of universal happiness will be the sacrifice of the most hallowed shibboleths of our culture: "motherhood", "home", "family", "freedom", even "love" (Pearce). Is the price of true motherhood, home, family, freedom, and love worth the reward of false happiness? When there is motherhood, home, family, freedom, and love, there is happiness.
Mercer, R. (2004). Becoming a Mother Versus Maternal Role Attainment. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 36(3), 226-232. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.