Abstract
“Is it more natural for mothers to parent than it is for fathers or anyone else?” Although this is an ill-defined question, in several respects, Rossi (1977) offers a sophisticated defense of the traditional affirmative answer to it. Rossi argues that not only is it more natural for mothers to parent than for fathers or anyone else, but it is also natural that mothers will be in certain respects better parents than anyone else. Rossi’s thesis is that mothers have natural, unique and superior parental abilities and responsibilities, especially toward their infants and very young children. Rossi phrases her thesis in terms of what her “biosocial perspective” suggests rather than what nature dictates, but her point is clear:
It is…likely that the emotional ties to the children are more important to the mothers than to the fathers….(T)he predisposition to respond to the child may be much greater on the part of the mother than the father….If a society wishes to create shared parental roles, it must either accept the high probability that the mother-infant relationship will continue to have greater emotional depth than the father-infant relationship, or institutionalize the means for providing men with compensatory exposure and training in infant and child care in order to close the gap provided by the physiological experience of pregnancy, birth, and nursing (Rossi, 1977, p. 18).
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References
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Footnotes
1) See also Rossi (1970) and Rossi (1973).
Rossi (1977) has already provoked several responses in print. See, for example, Cerullo, Stacey and Breines (1977–78a), and Chodorow (1977–78). To the author’s knowledge, however, no one else has developed a philosophical critique of Rossi’s appeal to “nature,” which is the focus of the present paper.
This phrase is adapted from Dinnerstein (1976), p. 21. The view is adapted from Freud and Marx, as well as from Dinnerstein.
Reviews of the literature on the application of sociobiology to the study of human sexuality are given in Barash (1977), Wilson (1975), and Wilson (1978). See also Symons (1979).
Rossi cites Goldberg, Gilder, Fox and Tiger as social scientists aligned on this “nature” side of the debate.
On the complexity of the “nature-nurture” issue, see, for example, some of the recent literature on I.Q. testing. Especially helpful are: Gartner, Greer and Riessman (1974), Kamin (1974), and Block and Dworkin (1974).
On the complexity of the “egalitarianism/non-egalitarianism” issue, see, for example, some of the recent literature on affirmative action policies. Two useful sources are: Cohen, Nagel and Scanlon (1977), and Gross (1977).
Finally, on Rossi’s simplistic association of biological nativism with non-egalitarianism and cultural environmentalism with egalitarianism, see, for example, the literature inspired by Chomsky’s theory of language: Chomsky (1969, 1970, 1972, and 1974), Bracken (1978), and Marks (1975).
See also Money and Ehrhardt (1972).
See Klaus and Kennell (1976).
I owe this point to Adele Laslie.
See, for example, Bane (1976).
Trebilcot (1975) offers several different arguments for the related thesis that various appeals to “nature” do not support the claim that gender-determined social roles should be encouraged in a society. See also Pierce (1971) for arguments for the further thesis that from “X is a natural human practice” one cannot, in general, infer that “X is good or valuable.”
Earlier versions of this paper were read at Miami University and at the Michigan State University Conference on Philosophy, Children, and the Family, March 28–30, 1980. I wish to thank Judith de Luce, Richard Momeyer, Peter Rose, Iris Young, and Adele Laslie for their helpful comments. For lively debate about Rossi’s article, I am also indebted to students in my classes at Miami University on “Philosophy of Love, Sexuality and the Family.”
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Wilder, H.T. (1982). Mother/Nature A Skeptical Look at the Unique Naturalness of Maternal Parenting. In: Cafagna, A.C., Peterson, R.T., Staudenbaur, C.A. (eds) Philosophy, Children, and the Family. Child Nurturance, vol 1. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3473-6_10
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