the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

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they have to be both subhuman and superhuman at the same
tlme
In reality, women have found it extremely difficult
KO combme independence and motherhood -- thls 1s because
motherhood has been enforced and instltutionalised. Even if
they attempted to do so, they found both lncompatlble and
eherefore had to segregate career and motherhood into
separate realms. Adrienne Rlch's statement,"for me, poetry
was
where I llved as no one's mother, where I exlsted as
myself" (1976 311, exempllfles thls lncompatabllrty In
addltlon to their professlonal obllgatlons, mothers are held
responsible for the famlly's welfare
The woman's
profession 1s considered less Imporrant than her husband's.
and 1f In a crlsls a confllct arlses between the parental
and the professlonal, it 1s the mother rather than the
father who 1s requ~red to assume the parental obllgatxon
The lmage of the mother at home, the 'angel In the house'
has been hauntlng and reproaching the llves of wage-earnlng
mothers and has become a dangerous archetype
The femlnlst
mothers, however, are ready to confront thls Image when they
conslder the fact that mother-work, In a soclety llke ours,
does not have any productive value, lt has only 'use-value'
b~t not 'exchange value' (aernard 1974 1151
3.5.1. For the new mothers, a career is cruclal ln
placing them in a socletal context beyond the role of a
mother. Tuula Gordon explains