Summary

The author makes her first suggestion: “Be a full person” (7). While she acknowledges that “motherhood is a glorious gift” (7), the author reiterates a second time: “Be a full person” (8). She encourages Ijeawele not to quit working, and to reject any arguments that exploit “tradition” as an argument for why women should stay out of the workforce. The author points out that Igbo women have been working as traders and farmers long before British colonialism. The author also asks Ijeawele to understand that as a “full person,” she must “give [herself] room to fail” (10) and not expect herself to “do it all” (10).

The author’s second suggestion calls for parents to share childcare and responsibilities equally. She especially calls attention to what she calls Ijeawele’s “socially conditioned sense of duty” (12) to her child, which expects that Ijeawele be the primary caretaker rather than...