The purpose of this research is to examine the concepts of mothering, maternal virtues, and nurturance proposed by various commentators, and then to explore these concepts vis-a-vis those of family relationships and child rearing that are said to have existed in traditional society. The plan of the research will be to set forth each of the first three concepts in turn, and then to integrate the initial discussions with an evaluation of so-called traditional practices.
Rumsey discusses conceptions of mothering and maternal virtues in a book review of Ruddick's Maternal Thinking. According to Rumsey, Ruddick's definition of mothering is understood with reference to specific virtues that arise from maternal experience. Rumsey characterizes Ruddick's definition as normative and transformative (126) to the extent it is intended as a means of extrapolating from individual to social experience. However, at its core, the definition is connected to "the three basic demands all children present: preservation, nurturing growth, and training for social acceptability" (Rumsey 126). The mothering enterprise involves responding to these demands, with the first two demands engaged chiefly at the individual level, with the mother essentially placing the child's needs before her own, and the third at both individual and social levels, with the mother functioning as both a moral anchor a liaison between individual and the community. Rumsey says that only in regard to the third demand for social acceptability and the possibility that the mother "may resist the institutions and values of the world," does the mother as Ruddick describes her function as an independent "moral agent" (Rumsey 129).
Rumsey takes the view that maternal virtues are not private but extend into the public realm, approving Ruddick's description of "training as a work of conscience" (129). The implications of such training include a maternal impulse toward social reform, notably...