Motherhood And Motherhood

What is the impact of motherhood on feminism? Should one ever feel compromised as being a feminist and a mother? These are some of the questions answered over the course of five chapters throughout this book. Motherhood and Feminism highlights women’s place they have in society as mothers and how feminism is related to motherhood. One major key point I found while reading this book is the author, Amber Kinser explains the growth

Adele Ratignolle’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is a perfect mother-women. Edna Pontellier’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is not a perfect mother-women for many ways. Edna Pontellier is not a perfect mother because “Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-women”(Chopin, 10). This quote means that Edna Pontellier is not a good mother/wife because she is not that of a women who would worship their children ,and their husband.

It describes momism as “the demonic version of domestic ideology” (Rogin, 8) and the loss of the typical role of women in society prior to the war. Previously women were limited to managing the household but during the war the opportunities for women expanded. Being allowed these opportunities women had acquired a taste of the powers and liberties that came with them. As soon as the men returned back to their former roles and reestablished America as a patriarchal based society they forced women back to their structured household roles. Some women resented returning to their former roles of taking care of the home so instead they searched for new roles.

Republican motherhood was all for the educating of women but the cult of domesticity wanted the opposite: no education for women. Document 7, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, reflects both the cult of

Until the wave of feminism occurred in the 1970s, women’s societal roles were primarily that of caretakers of the home and mothers. Given the patriarchal society’s misogynistic views of women, any defiance from a woman was seen as rebellious. Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales creates characters that defy and uphold these diminishing views of women throughout various tales. In the first tale, “The Knight’s Tale,” Emily displays relatively positive feminine characteristics through her exhibition of courtly love. Her presentation of purity contrasts the medieval opinion of women as being deceitful, which is evident in future tales.

She uses the foil to explore how Irene and Clare experience womanhood differently and connects it to the expectations of women in the 1920s. She mainly uses motherhood and marriage to exhibit these differences in their lives based on off race. She uses motherhood to show how Clare hates being a mother because of her fear of her husband finding out she’s black through her daughter’s skin tone. Irene appreciates being a mother even though she sacrifices her own desires for it; she understands the huge responsibility that comes with being a mother and embraces it. Marriage is used to portray Clare’s fear of her husband, and it shows Irene’s insecurity in her marriage when she suspects Clare and Brian are having an affair, yet her faith in her husband when she blames herself.

Consequently, this leads into the next quote, “ Why’n’t you tell her to stay the hell home where she belongs?”(62), that resembles the recurring childlike personna that is following Curley’s wife’s character. In that time gender roles played a substantial part in society. Women were expected to be housewives, tening to their husbands, and to what a women had expected of her. Curley’s wife’s main identification to being dehumanized is the lack of even giving her a name. The novella only introduces her as being “Curley’s wife”.

Although women's rights movements were in full throttle women still faced the constant battle with society, the idea of perfection. In Piercy's poem “Barbie Doll” she writes of how growing up is hard enough without superficial insinuation. Piercy's poem explores a story many can relate, how puberty and other harsh elements of the world can weaken a young girl's mind and spirit.

Calixta's position is a clear illustration of these issues. The Antebellum era didn't have a found outlook for women's roles in society. Most women, like Calixta, were expected to become mothers and live out their lives working at home and raising a family. Now, let's look again at the storm and its relation to what Calixta is going through here. With this roadblock in the way, the Calixta and Alcee share a temptation to initiate the affair.

Levy is able to empower women by voicing her own anxieties and she gives them the ability to connect with some who feels the same. She compares her insecurities of raising a child to those of traveling to a new country. Levy makes a point of stating she fears being “lost and incompetent and vulnerable” (136), just as she feels when traveling to a new country. Levy does not write her anxieties in a way that they are

She then states her mother’s difficulty to “criticize the sexist behavior she sees there” (25). In a way, Diaz understands her mother’s conflict as her mother was raised with different ideologies where women are expected to subjugate to their spouse. She believes that overcoming“the oppression of women in any domestic sphere” will contribute to the Mujerista movement. However, she also recognizes that “those of us as mujeristas criticize sexism in the Hispanic culture are often belittled and accused of selling out to the Euro-American women, but Euro-American feminists call into question our integrity and praxis as mujerista feminist when we are not willing to criticize” (26). With this in mind, we can see the constant fight a Hispanic women must face in the feminist