Attitudes Toward Marriage and Motherhood of 183 College Women

THE "maternal instinct" in women is quite an accepted popular conception without any definite proof of its existence. It is popularly taken for granted that all normal women have a strong desire for motherhood. Leta S. Hollingsworth, in an early issue of The American Journal of Sociology, had this statement to make regarding the "maternal instinct": "There is, to be sure, a strong and fervid insistence on the 'maternal instinct,' which is popularly supposed to characterize all women equally, and to furnish them with an all-consuming desire for parenthood regardless of all personal pain, sacrifice, and disadvantage involved....'') The thesis of this paper is based upon another conclusion from the same Hollingsworth article cited below: "There is no verifiable evidence to show that a maternal instinct exists in women of such all-consuming strength and fervor as to impel them voluntarily to seek the pain, danger, and exacting labor involved in maintaining a high birth rate." Data to substantiate this thesis were obtained from an unselected group of 183 college women students. Schedules were prepared containing reasons for desiring marriage or for not desiring marriage, and containing reasons for desiring children or for not desiring children. The data were grouped under urban and rural in order to be able to determine if the attitudes of the college women of the urban and of the rural areas differed to any great degree regarding marriage and motherhood. The data on marriage desired were classified on the basis of strong desire, undecided, and no desire. For the classification of strong desire, the plus sign (+) is used in the tables; the undecided are indicated by the word untdecided; the no desire are indicated by the negative sign (-). The basis for determining the strong marriage desire was from such reasons checked on the schedules as "desire for companionship," "desire for economic security," and "desire for moral security." The undecided were based on such checks as "too young to think seriously about marriage" and "have not thought about it." The no desire classification was determined by the checks of such reasons as "marriage interferes with a career," "women can't be independent in marriage," and "may be made unhappy by cruelty, infidelity, or by desertion." Only three indicated having no desire for marriage and these wanted to pursue a career in preference to marriage. The data on attitudes toward motherhood were classified by the plus sign (+) indicating an intense desire based upon such checked reasons as "love children," "want experience of motherhood," and "woman's religious duty." The plusor-minus sign (i) classifies the data indicating hat children are desired as a bond of union in marriage or as a means of security in old age or for health. These data were labelled plus-orminus because the assumption is taken that if the belief becomes intensely strong that children are essential as a bond in the marital union, or that childbirth assures health, the desire will become strong for motherhood. On the other hand, if this belief is weakened, the desire will become negative for motherhood. The reasons determining this classification are, "children will hold husband and wife together," "children will keep interest in the home," "children are useful to take care of a parent in old age," and "childbirth is essential to a woman's health." The negative sign (-) indicates these schedules checked as "do not like children," "afraid to risk childbirth due to chance of impairing health," and "childbirth interferes with occupation." Those undecided were checked under the word undecided. In making an analysis of the data obtained from the 183 college women, it is found that both urban and rural college women show the same attitudes toward marriage. Of the 115 urban college women, 113, or 98 percent, registered a definite desire to become married. The same was found to be true of the 68 rural college women. The schedules showed that 67, or 98 percent had a positive attitude toward marriage. The great majority of both urban and rural college women 1 "Social Devices for Impelling Women to Bear and Rear Children," The American Journal of Sociology, 22 (July, 1916), 19-29.