The Motherhood Mandate

Abstract

T h e centrality of motherhood to the definition of the adult female is characterized in the form of a mandate which requires having at least two children and raising them well. T h e processes mandating motherhood are discussed. A direct attack on the motherhood mandate is seen as basic to eliminating sex-role stereotypes, mythologies, and sex-typed behavior. Given the social and cultural forces that propel women into motherhood-either by choice or by chance-a thorough analysis of the purpose of childbearing and childrearing in a changing society is basic to understanding persistence and change in sex-typed behavior.N o volume devoted to an analysis of persistence and change in sex-typed behavior would be complete without special consideration of motherhood. As William ONeill has observed, "experience has demonstrated that the formal barriers to women's emancipation-votelessness, educational and occupational discriminations, and the like-are less serious and more susceptible to change than the domestic, institutional, and social customs that keep women in the home" (cited in Blake, 1974, p. 137).For what purpose are women kept in the home? To bear and rear children. It is the primacy of this role of mother-along with the auxiliary role of wife-that must be appreciated if change and resistance to change in sex-typed behavior are to be understood.Special thanks go to Garrett Hardin for writing Mandatory Motherhood:The T m e Meaning of "Right to Life" (1974) and providing the inspiration for this analysis of the motherhood mandate. T h e author would like also to thank

Infertility and Life Satisfaction Among Women

“…There is reason to think that it might be. It has long been argued that there is a "motherhood mandate" in the United States (Hays, 1998;Russo, 1976), and McMahon (1995) has described in great detail the gendered expectations that push women to become mothers. Although more women are now choosing not to have children (Gillespie, 2003) and although the actual percentage of women having children has recently declined somewhat (Quesnel-Vallee & Morgan, 2004), the vast majority of American women both expect and desire to have children (Thornton & Young-DeMarco, 2000).…”

‘We thought if it’s going to take two years then we need to start that now’: age, infertility risk and the timing of pregnancy in older first-time mothers

“…It has been argued that our society is inherently pronatalist, whereby discourses of femininity typically regard becoming a mother as mandatory (Russo, 1976). This is reflected in the negative attitudes held societally towards those who either cannot or do not have children (Gillespie, 2000;Letherby, 1999;Shaw, 2011).…”

Roads Less Taken

“…To become a mother is a true sign of womanhood, just like becoming a father is proof of manhood. It is worth noting, though, that motherhood appears to be a more important constituent of femininity than fatherhood is of masculinity (Broverman, Vogel, Broverman, Clarkson, & Rosenkrantz, 1972;Russo, 1976;Veevers, 1980). Traditional conceptions of womanhood carry the implication that women who remain childless are somehow untrue to their destinies (Gordon, 1977;Hird & Abshoff, 2000;Ireland, 1993).…”