Chapters 10 and 11 Summary and Analysis

"Revolutionary Parenting"

As she begins her analysis of feminist ideas of parenting, the author comments that early feminists (again referring to them as white bourgeois women) saw parenthood as a trap, another way the male patriarchy exercised its power (see "Quotes," p. 135). She goes on to explore the tensions between that perspective and deeply ingrained views of motherhood - that it is a woman's unique gift and as such should be held sacred, that the mother is the only parent capable of good parenting, and that the home is the only place where such parenting can occur. She portrays all these beliefs as manifestations of ingrained sexist thought, suggests that breaking down and eliminating such beliefs will go a long way towards eliminating systemic sexism. She offers several examples of the way this breaking down can take place, including...