The Mothering Instict

Innate Trait or Gender Role? 

The term instinct generally considered an innate behavior. Particularly in our society, woman are said to have a “mothering instinct”. It has been said that woman are “born to love” and that our mothering impulses come naturally. Although this may be true for some, there is no proof that these characteristics are intrinsic. I believe the expression only limits women and is a conservative ideal. According to Crawford, “If scientists could prove that women are all alike- “born to love” rather than socialized to care for children- it would seem normal and natural to confine women to hearth and home” (Crawford, 2012, pg. 264).



In our society, women not only bear children, but they also tend to acquire primary responsibility in the care for children.  Women tend to spend more time with infants and children and sustain prime emotional ties with infants. These could all be valid reasons to why women are considered to have a mothering instinct. As a results, “although women’s mothering is a profound importance for family structure, for relations between the sexes, for ideology about women, and for the sexual division of labor and sexual inequality both inside the family and in the non-familial world, it is rarely analyzed (Chodorow, 2012, pg. 6). I believe that motherhood are learned behaviors and mothering occur through social structurally induced psychological process. Chodorow states that “It is neither a product of biology nor of intentional role-training” (Chodorow, 2012, pg. 7). I also believe that the term varies across cultures. The phrase’s definition correlates with each different society.The expression “Mothering Instinct” also assumes that it is innate in only females. Men adapt a mothering role just as easily as woman. I believe that both men and woman have the instinct to care and defend their offspring. Crawford explains that a nurturing personality can be created by being put in to a nurturing role as an adult (Crawford, 2012, pg. 265). I think that an adult’s mothering instinct, whether male or female, is constructed throughout childhood. Our social environment will have an affect on what behavior we deem caring and “motherly”.

Refrences
Chodorow, N. (2012). The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, Ltd.

Crawford, M. (2012). Transformations: Women, Gender & Psychology (2nd ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Another thought:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/maternal-instinct-is-wired-into-the-brain/?smid=pl-share