Motherhood And Motherhood

To explain, in both the pre-industrial and urban industrial periods men were pushed into and dominant in public life, whereas women were pushed into and expected to be in the private sphere, commonly the household. In both periods, the gender roles of men expected them to be the “money-earners” as well as the heads and decision-makers of families. On the other hand, gender roles of women expected them to stay home to raise and nurture children as well as do the household work as the domestic servants of the families. Though there were comparisons between both historical periods, there was a significant difference for women in the urban industrial period as some women, specifically widows began to work, though their gender roles reckoned them to be in the private sphere. Additionally, in the urban industrial period when the men went off to war, women replaced their roles and would also work in the public sphere to provide financial support to their families. Not to mention, there were contrasts between both historical periods when viewing family size and form. In pre-industrial times, monogamous marriages and living with extended families were the norm as religion viewed marriage as sacred and private, as well as assistance was required in establishing cottage industries

The men don’t usually work and are expected to watch the children (hence the term “housebound”) so they don’t have any access to money. They are made to be fully dependent on their woman. Even when engaging in sexual activity there are permissible positions and others that are regarded as dirty or deviant because the man is in control, which is unacceptable. It’s very interesting because the same can be said of modern society today. Women often have little access to financial means and have long since been expected to stay home with the children and let the husband work. This can actually be better explained when looked at on the macro-level. Though this book isn’t about a nation it’s fairly well-spread and established that women are in control of everything. There are some societies that differ in the treatment of men but it’s still a matriarchal situation.

Motherhood was an expected part of the wife’s life. Woman would have a large number of babies right after each other although some babies would not survive. “High mortality rates must have overshadowed the experience of motherhood in ways difficult to

During the long nineteenth century, political revolutions, industrialization, and European imperialism resulted in dramatic changes in the role of women in Western Europe and Eastern Asia. As industrialization spread in Western Europe, women were no longer able to fulfill their dual role as a mother and a worker. After the introduction of industrialization, laborious tasks were moved from the household to factories and women were forced to choose either the life of a mother or the life of a worker. Women who chose to leave their households were subjected to harsh conditions, low wages, and long hours. The majority of married and middle-class women were confined to the home, and deprived of an education and civil rights. Unlike the

“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.

However, one of the most interesting concepts is how these mothers contribute to the ways in which their daughters develop their own identities and individual practices that enable them to mother themselves. More specifically, how they learn to doctor wounds, process emotions and thought, and care for themselves in all aspects of life. Therefore,

There were numerous powerful testimonies and striking findings noted throughout the and first two chapters of the book Birth Matters by Ina May Gaskin. As a health care provider, and therefore someone who is entrusted to care for individuals during their most private and sacred times, I found Gaskin’s statements regarding the environment and care surrounding birth experiences very impactful. According to Gaskin (2011), the “women’s perceptions about their bodies and their babies’ capabilities will be deeply influenced by the care they recieve around the time of birth” (p. 22). The statements made by Gaskin in Birth Matters not only ring true, but inspires one

Based on the late 19th century short stories, The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening, the authors depicted childbirth as a traumatic and even torturous experience, which left women to cope with the physical and mental health effects alone. Effects such as these impeded the mothers’ abilities to be the ideal ‘mother-woman’ to their offspring because in the eyes of patriarchal society, they were only existent in the domestic sphere and their feelings and emotions were null and void thus defining them as too weak to take on the strenuous demands of society. The expectations were that they exert minimal energy using intellect and instead maintain a household suitable for the husband and children.

1.) Overall main topic of this book connects between the issue of motherhood and feminism. One major key point I found while reading this book is the author, Amber Kinser explains the growth and progress of the role of mothers in the american society meaning how the roles have changed overtime. A major theme of Kinser’s book is that the public debates may focus on mothering, but the issues affect us all.  Cutting back on health care for women, on education, and on jobs for teachers, social workers and others in the service sector have their greatest impact on mothers, but they affect all of us. Motherhood becomes a symbol for how men and women, single and married, gay and straight, deal with the need for individual options and the need to act for the good of others.

There are several parenting styles which guide children throughout their life. These parenting styles can be either good or bad and this will have an effect on the child; either a positive or a negative one. This essay investigates the parenting styles from which emerge questions about the role of the mother and the father. It also focuses on the ways that either too much mothering or too much fathering might have an effect on the child’s identity later on in its life.

In the 1800’s before the turn of the century it was male dominated world. Women were expected to marry and bear children. They were also supposed to stay home in order to tend to the domestic duties of cleaning, cooking, running errands and taking care of the children while the men went to work to make a weekly wage (Women, par. 2).

The modern world is in the midst of reconstructing gender roles; debates about contraception, reproductive freedom, and female inequality are contentious and common. The majority now challenges the long established assertion that women’s bodies are the eminent domain of patriarchal control. In the past, a woman’s inability to control her reproductive choices could come with ruinous consequences. Proponents of patriarchal control argue against reproductive independence with rhetoric from religious texts and with anecdotes of ‘better days,’ when women were subservient. Often, literature about childbearing fails to acknowledge the possibility of women being uninterested in fulfilling the role of motherhood.

Everyone knows that being a mother is not and easy job, especially those who have the right to be called “mother”. Women who are gifted with the miracle of giving birth are gifted too with an enormous job of guiding a person’s life. Moms are always known for being there always, breaking the obstacles with their sons and making them learn from their own mistakes. Being a mom is a hard work and sometimes they suffer from abuse from their sons or family members for just wanting the best for them.

During this period, the men increasingly commuted to their place of work while the women folk were left at home to look over the domestic duties. Women were considered physically weaker than men but were supposed to be morally superior to men.

What a majority of research has found about the role of a parent is that it is extremely stressful. (13) found that a lot of stressors came before even becoming a parent. The idea and roles of being a parent was enough to add stress too expecting parents. For women the biggest stressor was the role itself of becoming a new mother and for both men and women the social and gender expectations placed upon them also caused stress (13). Not only is the idea of becoming a parent stressful but the added stress of societal norms plays a huge factor in the way parents approach and feel about parenthood. (16) also attributes parental stress to the birth story. Dependent upon the parent’s birth plan and what they expect to happen during delivery and what actually