Motherhood and Feminism: Are They Compatible? The Ambivalence of Mothering

Abstract

This paper examines two conflicting moral imperatives: mothers are the people best equipped to raise their own children; and women are people and have a right to their own lives. Based on interviews with women with small children, this paper looks at the conflicts experienced by these women as they attempt to fulfil the motherhood role. It is found that being a person and being a mother can be experienced as mutually exclusive, especially where there is a high level of idealism about motherhood. We conclude that it is not the mothering of small children or motherhood per se that leads to the feelings of ambivalence on the part of mothers: it is mothering under a certain set of conditions (in the isolation of the nuclear family) and with a particular set of beliefs about womanhood and motherhood that leads to conflict and loss of self.