Discuss how concepts of fatherhood and motherhood have changed over time

Authors Avatar

SLSP2050 Sociology of Gender

SID No -200162034

Discuss how concepts of fatherhood and motherhood have changed over time

The role of mother’s and father’s it seems are constantly changing in our society and is individual to each family. In this essay I will attempt to gain a view of the concepts of both fatherhood and motherhood throughout history, however I will focus mainly on modern development. With regards modern issues I will be looking at the concept of the ‘new dad’, surrogate mothers and lone parent families and how concepts of motherhood and fatherhood have changed over time. It is important to note that with regards looking back over history it is very easy to generalize and a lot of our information about fatherhood and motherhood in previous times is from middle class white families and this is not necessarily the norm for the whole society. Just as I have raised many modern issues there were equally as many issues in other time periods, gaining evidence of these and studying them becomes more difficult though as we have little material to work with. Similarly there is a difference between the concept of motherhood and fatherhood and the reality, there are idealized conceptions of these roles and there are the realities and I will be conscious of this difference in the essay.

I will start with looking at the relationship between the two concepts of motherhood and fatherhood before I track their changes through history. The language that we use when referring to mothers and fathers and the respective roles that they play can be used when trying to understand these concepts. Chodorow (1978) puts forward the thought that we can speak of both men and women as ‘mothering’ a child, showing that being a mother is not only about bearing a child its is about nurturing and socializing that child. In many societies extended families may help mother a child, or children can be adopted and even men can be talked of as ‘mothering’ a child. However we would only talk about a man as ‘fathering’ a child, even in a lesbian couple family one of the partners would not be talked of as fathering the child but only as being it’s social father. It would seem that fathering is more a biological term. Similarly Laquer (1990) puts forward Chesler’s idea from an article in Ms (May: 1998) that motherhood is a ‘fact’ and a different category from fatherhood that it is argued is an idea. Laquer (1990) puts forward the thought that motherhood is a fact because the role it plays is seen as essential for a child whereas the fatherhood is only an idea. Coltrane (1997) similarly says “To speak of mothering implies ongoing care and nurturing of the child. Fathering, on the other hand, has typically implied an initial sex act and the financial obligation to pay.” (Coltrane, 1997, p4) The language we use therefore with regards motherhood and fatherhood can have an effect what we consider to be their essential concepts.

It is very difficult to trace accurately the concepts of parenthood before more recent times because of the bias of history. Most historical reports are from the perspective of the white, middle and upper class western family so therefore portray their bias. Most of the historical evidence we have is also from this group of society, so when I attempt to portray the concepts of parenthood through time there are obvious difficulties. As the concepts of parenthood are inextricably linked with the concept of the family, I may also reference the history of the family as way of discovering more about the central issues. If we look at the bioevolutionay approach stated in Chodorow (1978) it attempts to assert why women mother and men traditionally became hunters. They put forward the view that because of early life expectancy and rate of infancy death most women spent all of their childbearing years pregnant in order to carry on the population. Thus physically it wasn’t practical for women to go out hunting so they were left to gather small foods and look after the children already produced. However as Chodorow (1978) points out that this theory only works in a society that is still small in population size, where social organization is simple and gaining basic provisions was problematic. As society developed this basic argument was no longer applicable as women no longer needed to spend all of their childbearing years pregnant. As history progressed the concept of feudalism rose and a patriarchal society was firmly established. In these households the father was the head of the family and status was inherited via blood ties to the father. Women at this time had no legal rights and it was the father who was responsible for the family, servants, local tenants and peasants in his land. Engels (1972) argues that the family as a unit arose around this time mainly as an economic unit. As society began to produce a surplus of products that their community did not need the family arose as a way of means of control and a way of determining the subsequent inheritance. It is in this family form then that concept of parenthood arose, what we can determine about motherhood is that they were the nurturers of the children, yet in many peasant families the women worked as well as the men on the land. The role of the father seems to be solely about setting example and leading his unit to economic success.

Join now!

As time went by new practices came into force and production began to take place in the home something that the mother would supervise while the father went out to work. Slowly two separate spheres of influence were developing those in the home and those outside of it. Women were still responsible for child rearing and maintenance of the household. However the mother was responsible for training the girls and the father was responsible for training the boys. This is an example of socialization and many feminist writers argue that role training or cognitive learning by the mother of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay