The Motherhood Mandate
Author:
- 1 July 1976
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Social Issues
- Vol. 32 (3) , 143-153
Abstract
The centrality of motherhood to the definition of the adult female is characterized in the form of a mandate which requires having at least two children and raising them well. The processes mandating motherhood are discussed. A direct attack on the motherhood mandate is seen as basic to eliminating sex‐role stereotypes, mythologies, and sex‐typed behavior. Given the social and cultural forces that propel women into motherhood — either by choice or by chance — a thorough analysis of the purpose of childbearing and childrearing in a changing society is basic to understanding persistence and change in sex‐typed behavior.Keywords
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