American Journalist, Editor For News Of The New York Times

In the article entitled "Unmarried with Children" the authors present the findings of a study which they spent years interviewing 162 low-income mothers in eight poor neighborhoods in Philadelphia and its suburb, Camden, New Jersey. (Edin and Kefalas, 34). "We spent five years chatting over kitchen tables and on front steps, giving mothers like Jen the opportunity to speak to the question so many affluent Americans ask about them: Why do they have children while still young and unmarried when they will face such an uphill struggle to support them" (Edin at al, 33). Their goal was to paint a portrait of these women's lives from the early days of their intimate relationships, through pregnancy, birth and beyond to tell us why they frequently

“Who giveth/presents this woman?” is asked by the priest in Vincente Minelli’s 1950 film Father of the Bride and in Charles Shyer’s 1991 remake of the same name, respectively. Both films are extremely similar in content, as the remake borrows heavily on dialogue, temperament of characters, scene progression, and the overall essence of the theme of adoration between a father and his daughter, even though they are set 41 years apart. It would be foolish to say that post-war 1950s gender roles of the original film are the same of those of 90s remake, but regardless of the vast societal progressions and gradual increase of women’s rights from the 50s to the 90s (and now) there is still a subconscious stereotype of a “traditional” family that conforms to the ideas of gender roles that live within films of today.

“The most important force in the remaking of the world is a free motherhood.” This quote from Margaret Sanger highlights many first wave feminists views about the restrictions of motherhood, marriage, and household responsibilities. Many women saw being a mother as a chore or as something out of their control. Sanger fought these restrictions through bringing birth control to the general public who suffered from poverty due to large families. Others, like Charlotte Perkins Gilman, wrote social critiques in her texts “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Herland to bring attention to how society treats women and ideally how motherhood should be. Both of these women believed motherhood was a responsibility of women and they should take it more seriously to create better future generations. This goes beyond the suffrage and equality movement because it dictated that women’s sexual emancipation was equally important as women’s legal emancipation. Being a mother was considered a woman’s most crucial task at this time, therefore the power behind female sexual education and birth control challenged society to feminist.

The main cultural issue this story focuses on is women’s right and how they’re viewed in society. Earlier in society as well as in third world countries women play a more home wife lifestyle which

Harwood’s works challenge the patriarchal, societal view of motherhood as a role of delight, joy and fulfillment, revealing the hollow façade of meaningless that often comes with domestic suburban roles. She explores the role of women in her contemporary Australian society, criticising and challenging the expectations that women must be restricted to the domestic sphere in this patriarchal society. Harwood’s graphic description and evocative imagery conveys the hopelessness of many women. Home of Mercy explores how females are dehumanized as the pregnant, unmarried girls have ‘sinned’ in the eyes of society and

An average, women during the 1960’s were held accountable for many responsibilities. Women led very different lives during this time period. Punctual, responsible, and reliable were just some of the many standards that were expected from society. At the age of twenty women were expected to be married; soon after they would become pregnant. Raising a family and devoting their lives to be the best housewives possible. Legally women made no earnings or any income for that matter. Child care and in vigorous chores were a part of their daily routine. Women had no say financially. Women had one duty, and that was to be a housewife. Men had all the control in marriages; after all they were the bread winners. Women were stuck in a vicious cycle of controlling and power hungry men. Comparing women from the 10960’s to the women in today’s generation is quite astonishing. The women’s rights movement fought for women to be free. Women no longer need to be chained to such degrading and depressing circumstances. Raising a family and having a husband is a beautiful goal most women dream of. However, we should also have the right to decide when we want to marry and to whom we believe is the right candidate. “Why I Want a Wife” written by Judy Brady raises a powerful message on women in the 1960’s. Judy touches upon the idea that women had constantly been expected to be in confined and submissive relationships. Brady perfectly depicts the

“Instructions not Included”, and “Under the same moon” are two dramas that diffier on their tone, music; “Under the Same moon” is a tragic drama, while Instructions Not Included is a comedy. Besides their differences, both movies have strong similarities. In fact, both movies suggest that feminism is a reason for women to abandon a young child. Both movies focus in Hispanic single-parents that migrate to a different country, both relates that family separation impacts the children’s behavior and personality, and both movies suggest that self-improvement is not worth it, if it implies mothers to be separated from children. These facts have been proven by facts and research. This research has proved that children should not pay the price of women’s

Early twentieth century America is shaped by World War I , the effects of industrial growth, and a beginning of a new age in literature. Despite movements for progressive reforms like the prohibition of alcohol and the movement for women’s suffrage women’s rights were still limited by traditional gender roles. Women are a “detached portion” of their husbands and expected to submit to his every demand. As result of women being viewed as flighty and emotionally unstable, men must take the dominant role and every decision made in the family is approved by them. Moreover, the purpose of a woman’s life is to maintain a household and birth and care for her

The Journalist of the year, named by the Los Angeles Press Club, Radely Balko is the author of Rise of the Warrior Cop. Balko writes about how the increase in militarization of police forces have caused a lot of harm in the past decade. He questions what the proper role of law enforcement should be and discussed the effect of the drug on war has had. The main focuses of this book started off by giving a quick history of cops in America (also the name of chapter 3). In the remaining chapters he examines and focuses on the past fifty years. Decade by decade he examines the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, and the 2000’s. Balko gives examples of many innocent people being killed do raids that were in the wrong, some cases it also led to

The next main factor in the story is society's attitude towards illegitimacy. Any woman who bore a child out of wedlock was treated with disgust and held an air of shame and disgrace. This caused those who did happen to have their children out of wedlock to give them up and send them off to orphanages in hope their child would be alright. A lot of these single mothers tried to send their children to one such orphanage called "The Coram Hospital". An example is when Melissa, a young girl just found out she was pregnant and says "'And Mama? What about Mama? The disgrace. We'll both be thrown out. Destitute." This is a good example of the consequences of illegitimacy. If anybody found out about such circumstances the mother and her acquaintances would be thrown out and homeless. The writer includes this factual information in the story and it entwines

Therefore the time period of the story influenced the societal perspective of pregnancy and a woman’s role in the household, as it further emphasized their inferiority to

While the film presents imperative data it does not delve enough into the emotional hardship that women feel as a result of the social perception of her role as a mother. In the following

Mothers, according to society are the world’s perfect women. They can do it all, cook, clean, raise a family, and keep a job. All without breaking a sweat; people believe that women automatically know how to raise a well adjusted, well rounded child, that women who are also mothers know exactly what they are doing. Bette Greene, Tillie Olsen, and Gwendolyn Brooks show how a mother is nothing more than an average woman, in their works of “Ordinary Woman,” “I Stand Here Ironing,” and “the mother.”

Not only are woman subjected to society norms based on their personality characteristics, but also on their life choices and “domestic responsibilities” questions arise for woman like “who will care for you children and husband”. Montague Kern and Paige P. Edley state that women will continue to be “criticized for abandoning their traditional family roles” (1). This topic is not something that is brought up to their male counterparts. I don’t believe I have ever heard a man be questioned on who was going to assume the responsibility of raising their children. So until society genuinely accepts that raising children and other domestic issues are shared endeavors, then women will continue to face this barrier. (Robson, 208)

Societal perceptions of motherhood in North America have changed drastically over the last century and continue to change. Due to prescribed traditional gender roles, the concept of motherhood has historically been latent in the concept womanhood, in that a woman’s ability to reproduce was seen to be an inherent part of her identity. Thus there existed societal pressures not only for women to become mothers, but to fit into the impossible standard of being the “perfect mother”. However, as the feminist movement gained more ground and women were increasingly incorporated into the workforce, these traditional views of gender roles and in turn motherhood were challenged. As the family dynamics that exist today are much more diverse, what