Topic #2
“Motherhood has been constructed ideologically as compulsory only for those women considered ‘fit,’ and women have often been judged ‘unfit’ on the basis of their social location. . . . The
ideology of mothehood . . . speaks not only of gender roles and behaviour, but it also constructs some locations within social relations of race, class, sexuality, ability and so on as more
appropriate for motherhood than others” (Kline 191).
Discuss this statement about the ideology of motherhood Analyze how patriarchal beliefs about motherhood — and beliefs rooted in other systems of domination — affect women’s lives in a variety of
ways. Also discuss how women have recisted these stereotypes of the “fit” and “unfit” mother.