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Gilman Motherhood

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Bryant Lockridge, Helen M. Sterk.2012, 78). Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who is one of the early pioneer of the feminist movement in the first decade of century and who is interested in the social and economic roots of women's oppression, in her books The Home: Its Work and Influence (1903) and Human Work (1941), she attacks motherhood and the domesticity of women in the early 20th century. She suggests that the liberation of women and of children and of men, for that matter requires getting women out of the house, both practically and ideologically and that that the relegation of women to roles associated with their sexual or reproductive activity is disadvantageous to their progress as individuals and as a race. Gilman was against culture which …show more content…

Women realized that family duty and motherhood is only one part of their role and ability in life. They felt that their existence as 'wife' or 'mother' is inadequate and that they need to grow and expand their minds. They start asking - "Who am I? Women had an image they try to follow and conform. Some conflict appeared between women's desires and the dominant values of feminine motherhood, which made women declare their protest and led to a change in attitude towards motherhood. The crisis begins when feminist women begin call on women(mothers) to fight against motherhood and suggesting other alternatives. The women revolt against motherhood in family portrayed in fiction by dissatisfied protagonists with the existing ideals of motherhood, this revolt is not only personal attack on the mothers as it‘s against the institution of the family. Adrienne Rich, in her book Of Woman Born indicates to this revolt when she says "not the fear of one's mother or of motherhood, but of becoming one's mother" (1976, 235). In Alice Walker`s novel Meridian, It seems that Meridian is struggling to be free of motherhood, she hates her mother who is a victim of motherhood, she does not want to be the same like her mother. In Meridian, Walker indicates that both mother and daughter are estranged as result of motherhood and patriarchal norms, which exploits and control female behavior inside the family. So, Adrienne Rich

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