Young Females' Images of Motherhood - Statistical Data Included

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,  Dec, 2000  by Carine T.G.M. Ex,  Jan M.A.M. Janssens

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Carine T. G. M. Ex [1]

This paper reports on two studies into the images of motherhood held by young females. In Study 1, we attempted to uncover general conceptual dimensions by which young Dutch females perceive motherhood. For this, a group of 64, predominantly White, participants of various ages and educational backgrounds were interviewed about real-life mothers and female images derived from television. Qualitative analysis revealed 4 main conceptual categories: a mother's traditional orientation toward motherhood, her child-centeredness, herself-assertive attitude, and a mother's open and social attitude. The items making up the 4 conceptual categories found in Study 1, underwent factor analysis in Study 2. Two main dimensions were found. One dimension represented a traditional orientation toward motherhood, whereas the other added a more contemporary perspective to motherhood, and represented a self-assertive and relational orientation toward motherhood. In Study 2, we investigated how young females viewed themselves as potential mothers with regard to these two dimensions. We analyzed whether differences in the views of young females about their future motherhood were dependent on level of education, age, and image of their own mother. The 165, predominantly White, young females taking part were asked to rate themselves and their mother on a range of items, representing the two dimensions of motherhood. Although daughter ratings were positively related to the ratings they assigned to their mothers, daughter perceived themselves to function differently with respect to the two dimensions of motherhood, compared to their own mother: They perceived themselves as less traditional, and more self-assertive and relational oriented than their mothers.

This study focuses on the images of motherhood held by young females. We attempted to uncover the main conceptual dimensions by which adolescent Dutch girls and young Dutch women perceive motherhood and, in particular, their potential future motherhood.

Views on motherhood and mothering practices have changed over the course of time. As a socially defined and constantly reconstructed phenomenon (Ambert, 1994; Phoenix & Woollett, 1991), research has documented that views on motherhood and maternal practices have followed their own "natural history." These views have been strongly shaped by the circumstances of time and place, scientific and technological advancement, and social and economic developments (Arnup, 1994; Badinter, 1980; Hays, 1996).

In the last 40 years, the identity of Dutch women has shifted from one predominantly directed at caring and household tasks, to an identity with an increasing orientation toward employment (Heiligers, 1995). Today's Dutch mothers are faced with the dilemma of individualization and a caring position (Knijn, 1994). In the period from 1950 to 1990, the unidimensional identity of Dutch women was replaced by a bidimensional identity (Brouns & Schokker, 1990; Heiligers, 1995; Tulkenburg, 1995), a phenomenon observed also in other countries (Nicholson, 1997; Walzer, 1997; Woodward, 1997). In general, women's labor force participation increased dramatically during the twentieth century, and in recent years, the continuity of women's careers has also risen (Spain & Bianchi, 1996; Walby, 1997).

For a relatively long period, the labor force participation rate of women in the Netherlands was low compared to other European countries (Groot & Pott-Buter, 1990; Hooghiemstra & Niphuis-Nell, 1993; Jong-Gierveld & Liefbroer, 1995): It was not until 1990 that this rate was similar to that in other Western countries. By 1997, the percentage of working women in the Netherlands in the 15-64 age group was 62.2%, whereas this figure for working women in all European countries was 58.3% (Elsevier Almanak, 2000). The increased percentage of working women in the Netherlands can be attributed to the rise in the number of married women who entered the labor market (Brinkgreve, 1994; Sociaal en Cultureel Rapport, 1996). However, compared to the United States and Eastern Europe, the share of women's total employment for the countries of the European community is still low (Blossfeld, 1995), although "in the Western countries as well as in the US, women no longer systematically leave their work when they marry and have children" (Begeot & Fernandez-Cordon, 1997, p. 37). According to figures from the Bureau of the Census, in 1998 only 20% of women stopped working when they delivered their first baby, 43 % worked fewer hours, and the rest (37%) continued working as before (Austin, 2000).

The increase in women's labor force participation represents a reflection as well as an expression of the changed conceptions of women's roles. In analyzing Dutch magazines, Knijn (1994) found shifts in the images of motherhood as portrayed during the period from 1960 to 1980. The image of the self-sacrificing mother, which dominated the 1960s, was replaced by that of the educational mother in the 1970s. For mothers of the 1960s, servitude and sacrifice, as well as devotion to duty and behaving well, were the acknowledged virtues. Mothers were "essentially mother," and were considered natural experts on child-rearing who intuitively knew how to raise their children. During the 1970s, however, mothers were no longer expected to rear their children intuitively: They were advised to educate them in order to develop the children's cognition, creativity, and physical skills. In the 1980s, this image was revised to become that of motherhood as self-fulfillment: Motherhood was no longer conceived of as a natural duty, but as a woman's consciously and independently made choice. Knijn's findings (Knijn, 1994), as just summarized, are consistent with changes in the image of motherhood and the associated practices as described by others (e.g., Arnup, 1994; Hays, 1996; Kaplan, 1992). The mother of the 1980s was attributed an important role in the social and emotional well-being of her children. The practice of motherhood was in the first place a psychological task. This seems to have been consolidated in the 1990s. The current child-rearing practice can be conceived of as an emotional-psychological task (Doornenbal, 1996), one that is intense and child-centered in nature (Hays, 1996). The ideal parent is an authoritative parent (Maccoby & Martin, 1983), that is, a parent who monitors the child and is responsive, but gives the child room for individual exploration and autonomy within a climate of communicative understanding and affective relationships (Barnard & Martell, 1995; Hays, 1996).