From Rods to Reason

In “The Cultural Contradiction of Motherhood,” Sharon Hays explores the development in the ideologies of parenting. She begins by describing the prevailing views of child rearing in the Middle Ages. During this time children were seen as “‘gluttonous animals’ or as demons who attempted to drain their mother’s lifeblood as they bit at her breasts.” (pg 22). “When small children were not being fed, drugged, whipped or tossed, they were often simply ignored.” (pg23). Child rearing was not awarded any honor or status and it was for this reason that women, who “low on the scale of the great chain of being,” (pg 23) were the primary caregivers. Essentially children of the Middle Ages were ignored until they were able to contribute to the family’s wealth and status. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such views changed among Western European bourgeoisie and aristocracy. These groups began to cherish childhood. These families characterized children as possessing a certain innocence that the parents were required to protect. It was believed that childhood training, which included parental love, was of utmost importance in developing the child’s future character. the prevailing philosophies regarding parenting during this period were quite different among New England Puritans. While childhood was identified as a distinct stage in life, there was “no notion of childhood innocence, no protected place for children” (pg26). Rather, for these puritans, childhood was seen as a time to atone for natural sinfulness. During this time, Hays explains, the child was “consciously molded by means of physical punishment, religious instruction, and participation in work life.” (pg 27). While the New England mothers played an important role in raising their children, their role was likened to that of a sheepdog who keeps the sheep in line. But, just as the sheepdog must answer to the shepherd, so to did the wife have to obey her husband. Hays then goes on to explain how “by second half of the nineteenth century childrearing was synonymous with mothering” (pg 29) among the middle-class. From this environment arose the “cult of domesticity,” the “cult of true womanhood,” and the “Domestic Code,” which established women as the sole guiders of their children, eliminate the males role as the shepherd. The middle-class women worked to created an image for themselves as the “keepers of morality” who provided for the moral and emotional nourishment for their children and husbands and thereby helped fostered a more virtuous world. Physical discipline was abandoned for psychological discipline that was meant to inspire self-control. Hays is careful to point out that during this time “working-class women continued to be publicly understood as foolish, immodest, and devious.” (pg 37 Next, Hays discusses the brief period at the end of the nineteenth century in which by discussing our modern parental ideologies, which are the mother’s nurturing instincts were no longer believed to be adequate in raising a child. Instead, the opinion that raising a child is a scientific matter arose. However, the notions of childhood innocence and the adequacy of the mother’s nurturing instincts were soon restored. This restoration persisted into modern day, which, as Hays explains, is in the midst of an ideology of intensive mothering, in which children are endowed with an innocence that is to be protected from the market sphere. However, the context in which such notions are established is quite different than ever before. Hays concludes by discussing the contradiction of motherhood that arise from this context in which exist the new expectations of the working mother. I was not surprised to read about the varying views of children held by the periods discussed in article. Each view seemed to fit the stereotype that I have of their respective periods. I almost wanted to laugh in reading the about children in the Middle Ages. If nothing else I left this reading relieved that I missed growing up in the Middle Ages by a close couple hundred years. I found it fascinating how the image of the child evolved with and according to the image of the mother, and vice versa.