the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

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allowing women to place themselves outside family
households The mothering and education of the children,
carried out by trained specialists, is crucial to the
creation of a new people wlth a new consciousness in the two
4.5.1. While outside Herland, the mother 1s totally
absorbed in her baby and takes no more than theoretical
lnterest in other chlldren. the chlldren of Herland are of
Interest to the entire natlon Gilman's statement, "Our
chlldren are largely benefited by the publlc, and would be
much more so lf the domestic concept dld not act too
strongly in llmltlng mother love to so narrow a fleld of
action'! (clted ln Sapler 1972 llO), 1s enacted In Herland
where motherhood is the basis of the sense of solldarlty and
community as well as the ~mplled prlnclple of organlzatlon
As one of the Herland mothers says
We soon grow to see that mother-love has more than
one channel of expression I thlnk the reason our
chzldren are so so fully loved, by all of us, is
that we never - any of us - have enough of our
own we each have a mllllon chlldren to love
and serve - cur chlldren (H 71)
Collect~ve motherhood, therefore, lmplies a lack of
compet:tlon / incentive. One of the mothers reacts wlth
shock on learning about the competition motherhood outslde
Herland involves. "Do you mean, for instance, that with you
no mother would work for chlldren without the stimulus of