Gender Roles Of Motherhood

Timeline of Four Major Events of the Woman's Movement and Commentary Explaining How Each of These Four Events are Interrelated

The first event I find significant is the "Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting emplyment discrimination based on race, color, religon, sex, or national origin (for companies with fifteen or more employees)." because it took a stance for not just women but also people of other races, cultures, and religons. This Act gave women the ability to get more jobs outside of the home and be more independent. Women should be able to help with the income and provide for her family just as much as a man. This Act gave women that much more of an opportunity to do so.

Only in the late 18th and early 19th centuries did ideas of affectionate marriages and loving, sentimental relations with children become dominant in American family life. These attitudes first took hold among the urban, educated wealthy and middle classes, and later spread to rural and poorer Americans. This change was due to the growth and increasing sophistication of the economy, which meant that economic issues became less pressing for families and production moved outside the home to specialized shops and factories.

“A wider freedom is coming to the women in America” (Foner, Give Me Liberty, 677). An influential figure in the women’s movement was Charlotte Perkins Gilmen who wrote ‘Women and Economics’ in 1898 which set forth and challenged the ideas of gender roles that a women’s life was not to be bound to her husband and children in her home but is to be out in the workplace earning her own wages and be able to experience firsthand, true freedom. In her book, she stated “If that change is for the advantage of individual and the race, we need not fear it”, (Give Me Liberty, 710). Another shift in the women’s era was the idea and use of birth control for women. Social reformer Margaret Sanger advocated for the right for women to be able to enjoy sexual intercourse without the worry of falling pregnant and provided sex education to those in the urban poor communities. She also gave out contraceptives to poor immigrants but was later jailed for corrupting the minds of women with the birth-control movement. Having or not having children was an issue for all women regardless of social status, it brought together women part of the poor, middle and upper class economic society. Women could work but having a child made it more difficult for the women to do so, thus the birth control movement gave women so many more options than just being a wife and mother. They can now go pursue their careers, enjoy their

During the 1900’s, women had a tough time becoming their own unique beings. They had little rights, almost non-existent to be honest, and no voice. Consequentially, women were forced into becoming good housewives and value the growth and developmental impacts they had on their children. Along the way, women had the voice to say enough is enough. Women wanted change and they wanted it now. This is what sparked Women’s rights movements.

Pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood is a time in a women’s life that is full of varying emotions. Some are excited and hopeful while others are worried and careful. Either way, the moment you hold your newborn for the first time, there is a new sense of purpose women often feel. A heightened sense to nurture and protect. During slavery, that was not always the case for most if not all enslaved women. In a time where oppression, discrimination and sadistic acts of violence and terror were casted upon enslaved Africans in America; women were merged into specific gender roles and expectations. White and black women were not seen equally. Societal views created a margin of how the world perceived white and black women in all aspects of life including: motherhood, work and their roles as a wife.

The battle for woman's rights was intense, they had to Shake off the age-old expectation that their only role was to serve as wives and mothers. Women entered the workforce in large numbers, became more involved politically, won the privilege to vote, and fought for a constitutional amendment for equal rights between men and women. The movement was to make birth control widely available to women so they weren’t stuck at home raising child after child, it sought to overcome laws making it illegal for women to get birth control devices and information about birth control.

Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,

1. Gender is being male or female, but in a social sense instead of a biological one, like sex. Gender roles are the expectations that society creates for each gender to act like and behave. In the film Parenthood, there were many different examples of gender roles. One of the major one examples that stood out to me was in the instance of Helen and her two children. At the start of the film, Helen let her son, Gary, walk out of the house being disrespectful and go do whatever he wanted, however she told her daughter, Julie, that there were people coming over later tonight and she needed her to help clean the house. Another major example of gender roles that stood out to be was the constant showing of the woman having to take care of the

has begun to form. When we meet a new person, we are instantly judging whether they are male

When a child is born, it does not know anything about the world. As it gets older, the child learns morals and values from the people around it. One concept children learn is the role of gender in their lives. Young boys and girls are given different messages about what they are and are not supposed do in social situations, causing them to act and dress differently from one another. Gender is not something tangible that happens; it is something perceived by American society. Only by teaching children that there is no difference between men and women can the world have true gender neutrality.

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

Maya Angelou said, “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow” (Wanderlust 1). The relationship a mother has with her child transcends all other relationships in complexity. Maternity largely contributes to the female identity in part because the ability to sexually reproduce is uniquely female. With this ability often comes an unparalleled feeling of responsibility. That is, mothers experience an inherent desire to protect their children from the world and guide them through life. Serving as a child’s protector then transforms a woman’s perspective, or the female gaze. While these protective instincts often arise naturally, they are also reinforced by the ideas society’s perpetuates about motherhood. Globally, women are expected to assume the roles of wives and mothers. The belief that motherhood is somewhat of a requirement assists in the subjugation of women and reinforces a plethora of gendered stereotypes. While some women enjoy the process of childrearing, others feel that having a family comes at an irreparable cost: losing sight of oneself. In response to the polarized views surrounding maternity, several authors have employed different writing techniques to illustrate the mother-child dynamic. Through the examination of three narratives, spanning fiction and non-fiction, one is able to better define maternity and the corresponding female gaze in both symbolic and universal terms.

I absolutely think that fathers can take care of infants and young children as competently as mothers can. Caring for a child is hard no matter what but I think that a father is just as capable as the mother in caring for a child. I think it has less to do with gender when it comes to caring about a child and more to do with the level of support and willingness to care for the child. I think that society has played a large role in the way that we perceive parents. There are definitely certain gender roles that we expect from parents. Typically, we view the father as being the bread-winner and the mother as being the more hands on parent. I think for these reasons there has been a stereotypical view on the type of care that fathers and mothers

Growing up as a child, many of the issues I have seen and faced are some that I would never wish on anybody. I have witnessed almost all the male figures in my life verbally and sometimes even physically abuse the women in my family. Speaking of the women in my family, majority of them have had babies as young as the age of thirteen going on fourteen. Shocking, I know! The sad reality is, most of the women do not understand their value or worth. They go from man to man and continue to have more babies. No wonder why my family is so big, on my mother’s side as well as my father’s. I have had the not so pleasant experience of seeing a few of my cousins go to prison. Some of them have gone for murder and some for other criminal acts. Just as I have seen a few go to prison, I have had to deal with many of them getting murdered. While I have seen quite a bit in my life, nothing can compare to an experience of sexual harassment that I had to personally endure myself while being a high school student. Having a wonderful childhood is something you hear about quite often, but I always wonder why I could not have that same experience. Well, they say “God gives his toughest battles to his strongest warriors,” so maybe that is why. Another thought that I have been pondering on is that maybe I had to endure all of this to begin to break generational “curses” as my grandmother would call them. Because of the tragic events I experienced growing up, I could strongly relate to many of the