“We are, as a sex, infinitely superior to men, and if we were free and developed, healthy in body and mind, as we should be under natural conditions, our motherhood would be our glory. That function gives women such wisdom and power as no male can possess.” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an inspirational abolitionist for the women’s suffrage movement. She was always prominent through her writings, actions, philosophies, reformist ideals and moral obligations to this era.
“Stop Setting Alarms on My Biological Clock” written by Carrie Friedman is about her experience about other mothers asking Friedman why doesn’t she have any children. Friedman wants mothers to stay out of her business since the decision of having children doesn’t concern them. Friedman isn’t sure if she is even able to produce offspring since she haven’t tried starting a family. Mothers should keep in mind that many women don’t have ability to have children. Friedman then points out that mothers that abandon their own life passions are setting a bad example to other women into not wanting them to become mothers.
In the “Baby Bust” essay, it is portrayed as if it is somehow a woman’s responsibility is to bear children and contribute to society by increasing the overall population size. However, it is not just exclusive to Canadian women who decide not to have children: “in Europe where, where one government after another experiments with costly childbearing incentives, the universal experience is that bribes don’t work. Women must want to have children” (367). Women willingly do not want to start families because they have other responsibilities to themselves like “finishing their training” and “rising within their chosen job”, as indicated in by Klass. Despite the declining population, women voluntarily opt out of parenthood, and as a result no incentive or bribe will be effective in convincing her to have children.
New York: St. Martin's, 2009. 23. Print. Thompson-Cannino, Jennifer, Ronald Cotton, and Erin Torneo. "Chapter 10.
.. The exercise of her right to decide how many children she will have and when she shall have them will procure for her the time necessary to that developmental of other faculties than that of reproduction.” (Young, 277) Going back on the phrase voluntary motherhood, Sanger stresses the ideas of woman getting to choose what happens with their bodies. They should be allowed who they wish to have a child with, when and even how many children they wish to have. This is very important because during that time woman did not have much control even though it was their body they were looked down upon when it came to abortions or contraceptives.
For centuries women were always supposed to just bear their husband’s child, and be nothing more than a mother and wife. This created lots of problems, such as the millions of childbirth related deaths and home abortions. This eventually sparked an initiative in Margaret Sanger. As a result of the death of Margaret Sanger’s mother due to multiple childbirths, Sanger was motivated to finding a prevention of pregnancy that could potentially save lives (Gibbs, Van Pyke and Adams 41). This task, however was not easily achieved.
The argument over a woman’s right to choose over the life of an unborn baby has been a prevalent issue in America for many years. As a birth control activist, Margaret Sanger is recognized for her devotion to the pro-choice side of the debate as she has worked to provide sex education and legalize birth control. As part of her pro-choice movement, Sanger delivered a speech at the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference in March of 1925. This speech is called “The Children’s Era,” in which she explains how she wants the twentieth century to become the “century of the child.” Margaret Sanger uses pathos throughout her speech as she brings up many of the negative possibilities that unplanned parenthood can bring for both children and parents.
Motherhood, is one of the most unforgettable milestone in women’s life and a sense of achievement
Alice Rossi, a feminist sociologist, believed that gender inequality relays on the biological factors elaborated to some human behavior. Women are more able to be “mothering” and giving birth than men are. Rossi has confidence in women being more sensitive to the infant’s soft skin and their nonverbal communications. Rossi believed that whatever biological inclinations nature provided, were coated with culture such as motherhood becoming a full time occupation for women. Rossi once quoted; Demands for equality for women are threats to men's self-esteem and sense of sexual turf.
Such considerations fundamentally shape human life and family relationships. A women needs to be aware of the various psychological and social factors that contribute to the decision such as “that human parents, both male and female, tend to care passionately about their offspring, and that family relationships are among the deepest and strongest in our lives—and, significantly, among the longest lasting.” These key intrinsic goods- in this case factors such as human life, parenthood, and family relationships- are ultimately worthwhile are not to be taken without due
Second ed. McGraw Hill, 2006. Bentley, Jerry H., Herbert F. Ziegler, and Heather E. Streets-Salter. "
While all of the following claims presented by Sanger seem to have a positive feminist view, she soon focused birth control as a solution to societal issues. Sanger claims that there is a correlation between poverty and large families and even list nine reasons when and why parents should not have children. The reasons listed by Sanger ranged from people with a disease, women under the age of twenty-three, and the parents’ economic circumstance. Therefore, rather than arguing about women issues she listed societal problems and why women who fall into those categories should not have children. The shift from focusing on women issues to social issues easily became a target on the black community through the eugenics movement as discussed by
Eds. Susan Belasco and Linck Johnson. 2nd edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2014. 224-227.
That for someone to actually understand a women it would take a medical professional. They are viewed as filled with too many emotions and have too many worries. They are way different compared to men, because according to men they are fairly simple to understand. Viewed as impossible to understand, too emotional, and too different from men. In the role of society “Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman” (p43).
The time when this story took place was a time when women were viewed as second class citizens. Mothers had traditional roles, which usually left them in the house, while men also had their roles, outside of the
