Gender and Society - Motherhood Flashcards
RCC general
- Moved on from teachings of Aquinas, recognise men and women are equal in the eyes of God
- Men and women have different roles, women are natural caregivers, but roles can still be reversed
- Women alone are capable of giving life, men alone can be priests (paradigms = Mary vs. Jesus)
RCC mulieris
o Virginity in Mulieris
♣ Women = mothers or virgins
♣ Mary could hold both, but for most women it is a choice
♣ Women = far more involved in process of procreation than men
♣ Being a dedicated virgin = response to the call of JC, have the option of being spiritual mothers to the Xianity community
♣ Becoming a nun does not stop a woman from fulfilling her maternal inclinations, it can express itself as concern for people, especially the most needy: the sick, the handicapped, the abandoned, orphans, the elderly, children, young people, the imprisoned and, in general, people on the edges of society.
RCC, pope Francis
- October 2013, P Francis
o Worries for women’s femininity if they try and take on masculine roles
o The first danger is to reduce maternity to a social role, to a task, albeit novel, but which in fact sets the woman aside with her potential and does not value her fully in the building of community. This is both in the civil sphere and in the ecclesial sphere. And, in the reaction to this, there is the other danger in the opposite direction, that of promoting a type of emancipation which, in order to occupy spaces taken away from the masculine, abandons the feminine with the precious traits that characterise it.
cofe
- 1995, Something to Celebrate
o Advances in sexual reproductive choices = greater emancipation for women
o As well as the new roles of women, we must look at the new roles of men as well e.g. unemployment
o Most women become mothers and value the chance to care for a baby
o Working mothers often struggle with the balance
o Church has a part to play in affirming the importance of mothers
quakers
- Women = equal to men
- Inner Light = in all people
- Support women’s groups in variety of developing countries
- Quaker Testimony on Equality began with the experiences from the 1650s where women could equally be empowered by the spirit as men, they were also preachers in those times, based right on Acts 2 – speaks of endowment of HS to prophesy
- Friends need to do more to encourage women in a still sexist society
simone db general
o Motherhood = social construct, used to oppress women
o Society’s view of humanity is masculine, women must rise above the role she has been assigned by men
o DO you think the mothers you know choose to have children? OR were they intimidated into having them?
o Constant imposition of having a child results in tension between a mother and her child
simone db mandarins
o The Mandarins
♣ Daughter tells her mother that all women can do is vegetate
♣ Motherhood sucks away women’s personal interests and independence
♣ Women are crushed and left with nothing
♣ When they’re separated from their children, they feel they have no purpose
♣ Types of mothers
• Domineering and manipulative type of mother - attributes are determined by religion and society
• Mothers who feel their children are trapping them
• Women who have an abundance of love and never receive it back
♣ She wants women to make motherhood a controlled choice
naturalist feminist
gilligan
obrien
o 3rd paradigm put forward by Parson
♣ Emphasises differences between men and women
♣ Carol Gilligan: differences in moral compasses of men and women, boy are more rule-based, girls more concerned with relationship
♣ Society is set up to favour male ways of doing things, social attitudes/structures etc. must change
♣ Women must help eachother to fulfil their role of what it means to be a woman. Goes back to Mary Fuller, who said it is women who must decipher the essence of womanhood
o Mary O’Brien Politics of Reproduction
♣ Men are detached from the process of reproduction, has a v different experience
♣ Criticises feminism for looking at how women are oppressed rather than empowered, critical of reproductive technologies, devalues men
oakley
o Becoming a Mother
♣ Women change from joyous stage of pregnancy to a passive acceptance of their role as a mother
♣ Cultural expectations sap energy from women
o Woman’s work
♣ Biological motherhood = myth that all women must be mothers
♣ At the root of female oppression
♣ There is no such thing as maternal instinct, e.g. do not instinctively know how to breastfeed/some women neglect their children/there are single father etc.
♣ Children need stability and love, not a mother
♣ Girls want to be mothers because of cultural conditioning by society and the church
♣ This is the reason for the number of unhappy mothers: baby restricts them, they feel forced to have children by society
mary gray
- Mary C Gray, Reclaiming Mary: a task for feminist theology
o The reason for our anxiety are the implications that all women should be mothers, that femaleness is defined by motherhood, that women have been degraded as breeding machines, that female sexuality is similarly defined as geared solely to child-bearing, or ordered for women to be the play object for men, and that childbirth, too, has been manipulated by modern medicine.
daly
- Mary Daly, our birthing energies have been taken from us.
o Motherhood promotes subordination of women
o If women recognise this, we can reconcile mother/daughter relationships and ensure they know that they have both been victims and are now sisters and comrades.
