the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

IEKININE MOTHERHOOD
*Let her attend to a mother's and housewife's
dutres" that, In Victorian oplnion was the
proper job for a woman
- Duncan Crow
2.1.0. Patriarchal thought has imposed a nocion about
women that unless they are mothers, they remain unfulfilled
as women In addltlon, patriarchy also dlctates cercaln
norms that a woman should adhere to In he:
telllng her even what to feel and what not to
mother-role,
A vlctim to
such an androcentrlc soclety, a woman unconsciously lmbrbes
these ideals and starts conforming to what 1s expected of
her as a mother
Thus moulded by the lnsc~cutlon of
motherhood, mothers begln to adhere to the 'femlnlne' ldeal
o'
motherhood
2.1.1. The word 'fem~nlne' therefore has becsme
synonymous wlth wantlng to be a mother
The woman srho
chooses not to become a mother cannot be a femlnlne womn
along wlth motherhood, she re3ects womanhood
comments
As Oakley
The cholce 1s cast as a cholce between alternative
gender roles to be feminlne means to be, or to
wanc to be, a mother to reject motherhood means
to be masculine (1976 1881