Introduction
“Although women today have greater options through education than their mothers and grandmothers ever dreamed of, the view persists that the real vocation of women is mother: It’s the natural thing” (Senior,). The writer opines that the statement put forward by Senior still holds merit today as we live in a society that favours pronatalism. Pronatalism refers to any attitudes or policies which encourage reproduction and exalt the role of parenthood (Peck). Pronatalism makes assertions about what provides a woman’s ultimate fulfilment in life, and what her destiny will be.
The forces of pronatalism are significant to women as it is the philosophy responsible for the persistent idea that a woman’s destiny and ultimate fulfilment is entrenched in childbearing and motherhood. Furthermore, pronatalism focuses on the advantages of having children while minimizing the disadvantages (Veevers). It
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Similarly it is at work in the media, on television and in magazines. Motherhood is so idealized in Caribbean culture and cultures across the world, that it is hard to recognize the dangers inherent in this philosophy. Peck asserts that the danger of pronatalism is that it “denies or at least limits choice to individuals… and compromises opportunities for individual freedom and reproductive choice (p.2).
Additionally, it helps to stigmatize those who are childless whether by circumstance or choice, and creates an environment where women who are not mothers are pitied or vilified, and in which incorrect and unfair assumptions and prejudices are made about them (Gillespie, 2000). It further defines womanhood as motherhood, thus limiting a woman’s capacity to be fully realized and appreciated outside the boundaries of maternity.
Motherhood for a fulfilled
She tries to convince the reader that although the woman may think that she has no other option, there will always be something more appropriate than abortion. In summary, the author says that it is wrong to act impulsively and that women need to think about the consequences before attempting the termination of her child. She explains how the small human inside is “alive and growing” (P 23). Mathewes-Green addresses the concept of the child being “unwanted”, and how that is not true because “we are valuable simply because we are members of the human race” (P 21). The language the writer uses has a strong effect on a woman's heart, especially future and current mothers.
The speech was given to a group of people attending the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference, a conference on the topics of birth control and population control. In front of an audience that praised and disagreed with her ideas, Sanger spoke using many rhetorical devices to guarantee a spark to the senses of every audience member listening. Too many babies wasn’t just a problem for mothers, but for the whole world. Sanger approached the ideas of overpopulation, abortions, women 's choice, and the
Motherhood who needs it? Is it women, men, society or everyone in general who needs motherhood? In “Motherhood: who needs it?” Betsy Rollin argues that people are having children for all the wrong reasons. Instead of having them because they want to they have them because they feel that it is expected upon them as a woman.
.. The exercise of her right to decide how many children she will have and when she shall have them will procure for her the time necessary to that developmental of other faculties than that of reproduction.” (Young, 277) Going back on the phrase voluntary motherhood, Sanger stresses the ideas of woman getting to choose what happens with their bodies. They should be allowed who they wish to have a child with, when and even how many children they wish to have. This is very important because during that time woman did not have much control even though it was their body they were looked down upon when it came to abortions or contraceptives.
Name Course Tutor Date Rhetoric Movement The United States pro-choice movement or the United States abortion-rights movement is a socio-political movement in America that argues that a woman has the right to procure an abortion. The movement counters the pro-life movement that maintains that the fetus has a right to live as well since human life starts at conception.
Thesis statement: This thesis is an exploration of the social, political and economic circumstances that hindered Baby’s
The girls in favor of pro-choice shared that sometimes these children are left without parents. They are either left in orphanages or in foster care. Not all children have the right support and may feel unwanted as they grow up. Furthermore, some families cannot afford to have a child because they are not financially stabled. Some people feel they are not prepared to be parents.
In her pilgrimage to fight for women’s rights, activist Margaret Sanger created a speech on a severely controversial topic not only during her time period, but during our present time period as well. While many firmly disagreed with her and still do, she did bring to light a major disparity between sexes and social classes. By vocalizing her qualms with the rights of women, mainly in the middle and lower classes, to decide for themselves if they wish to have children or not. By voicing her opinions in an extremely misogynistic era she made herself a totem in women’s history. Women do have a right to decide for themselves if they wish to have children or not.
When a woman chooses to keep her baby, it may not be her decision; it may be her moral duty to the society influenced by her family’s pressure and religious belief. However, if she considers the broad social factors that will shape and influence her views, and that will allow her to make individual choices such as whether to keep her baby or not, she is applying what C. Wright Mills’ called the Social Imagination. James Henslin (2013) stated that C. Wright Mills’s sociological imagination gives us the ability “to understand how our personal troubles (the problems we experience) are connected to the broader conditions of our society” (p. 2). It allows us to question the “norms” and gives us the ability to see things from different perspectives
She questions society’s actions to boost the clarity of why pro-choice is beneficial to the advancement of the “century of the
These unmarried women wants to “fulfill their noble tasks of motherhood”(p132). One of the motivation is they feel a sense of loneliness because many of them experience sentiments of insufficiency and uneasiness in a society surrounded by people who are in harmonious conjugal relationships(131). Moreover, even though numbers of “women are unlikely to marry, but “would need a child to take care of them in their old age” (132). A program implemented “encourage women to adopt an intensified focus on their bodies as the locus of their ‘femaleness’”(132).
Sethe embraces the dominant values of idealised maternity. Sethe’s fantasy is
Such considerations fundamentally shape human life and family relationships. A women needs to be aware of the various psychological and social factors that contribute to the decision such as “that human parents, both male and female, tend to care passionately about their offspring, and that family relationships are among the deepest and strongest in our lives—and, significantly, among the longest lasting.” These key intrinsic goods- in this case factors such as human life, parenthood, and family relationships- are ultimately worthwhile are not to be taken without due
The concept of motherhood and the role of women have existed since the beginning of time and throughout various points it has differ. There is no limit to what can be considered motherhood. To one person, motherhood might mean the act of raising children and taking care of their family, and to another; motherhood might be what defines them as a person. This is seen in Tillie Olsen’s short story “I Stand Here Ironing” and the “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In both stories, the main characters were dealing with the struggles of motherhood and being a wife.
During the same era those in the working class raised their own children because they could not afford to send their children off, the raised their children because they had to. Jump to the 20th century motherhood was heavily encouraged as “the creation of Mother’s Day, started in 1926”. (The History of Motherhood) This era also brought about “new contraceptive methods and medicalization of pregnancy…” resulting in women wanting to be viewed as more than “a reproductive organ.” (The History of Motherhood)