the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

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4.5.2 Mothering, In Mattapoisett, is extended to men
also
The men are not male parents, but co-mothers and kid-
blnders, the concept of fatherhood is strangely lacking
here Mothering therefore becomes a collective
responsibility with each chlld havlng three co-mothers.
T~XS naturally fliminates possessive parenthood/motherhood.
enabling the kld - binders to cultivate a shared
responslblllty of mothering, instead of concentrating the~r
energles only on chlldren genetically related to them
This
congenial practlce of shared chlld-rearlng 1s agaln a dlrect
outcome of technological motherhood
As opposed to
blologlcal reprocldctlon, here, shared parenclng leads to an
andrownous outlook, thus brlnglng about an equality between
the sexes, Instead of tiltlng the burdens of reproducing and
rnotherxng on the woman alone
4.5.3. Gilman and P~ercy's concept of collective
motherhood conc'lrs wlth that of femlnlst theorists Germalne
Greer, Jullet Mitchell and Betty Freldan - who inslst that
b~olog~cal parents should be replaced by social parents
Critlcal of the nuclear family because it engenders
lsolatlan, frustration, and meaninglessness, they envlsage a
soclety where a woman who has a child is not autsmatlcally
commlcted to brlnging it up
They insist that a new
approach to child - rearing ought to be created where it is
not lust the mother but also the father
and SoClety as a