Abstract
In study 1, 148 married and unmarried childless Israeli women (mean age = 25) indicated how often they think about having a child, their desired age for having a child, and justified not being mothers, with or without being primed with photographs of babies. Priming and marital status impacted the motivation for motherhood and the justifications for not being mothers. In study 2, the same procedure was used with 137 unmarried, childless Israeli women (mean age = 24) whose gender role orientation was assessed. The impact of gender role orientation and priming on the motivation for motherhood and the justifications for not being mothers were complex, with femininity playing a much greater role than masculinity. The findings were discussed in the context of the myth of motherhood and its influence on the lives of women.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrahams, B., Feldman, S. S., & Nash, S. C. (1978). Sex role self concept and sex role attitudes: enduring personality characteristics or adaptations to changing life situations. Developmental Psychology, 14, 393–400.
Andersen, S. M., & Bem, S. L. (1981). Sex typing and androgyny in dyadic interaction: individual differences in responsiveness to physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 74–86.
Baumrind, D. (1982). Are androgynous individuals more effective persons and parents? Child Development, 53, 44–75.
Bem, S. L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 155–162.
Bem, S. L. (1975). Sex role adaptability: one consequence of psychological androgyny. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 634–643.
Bem, S. L. (1981). Gender schema theory: a cognitive account of sex typing. Psychological Review, 88, 354–364.
Bem, S. L. (1984). Androgyny and gender schema theory: a conceptual and empirical integration. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 32, 179–226.
Berkovitch, N. (1997). Motherhood as a National Mission: the construction of womanhood in the legal discourse in Israel. Women’s Studies International Forum, 20, 605–619.
Berthiaume, M., David, H., Saucier, J. F., & Borgeat, F. (1996). Correlates of gender role orientation during pregnancy and the postpartum. Sex Roles, 35, 781–800.
Blumberg, S. (2000). The white bear suppression inventory: revisiting its factor structure. Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 943–950.
Bock, J. D. (2000). Doing the right thing? Single mothers by choice and the struggle for legitimacy. Gender & Society, 14, 62–86.
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Campbell, D. T., & Fiske, D. W. (1959). Convergent and discriminant validation by multitrait–multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 56, 81–105.
Central Bureau of Statistics (2005). Access to post-secondary and higher education by high school graduates. Jerusalem: Government of Israel.
Central Bureau of Statistics (2007a). Patterns of fertility in 2006, #215/2007. Jerusalem: Government of Israel.
Central Bureau of Statistics (2007b). Statistics annual 2007, #58. Jerusalem: Government of Israel.
Chodorow, N. J. (1978). The reproduction of mothering: Psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Deady, D. K., Smith, M. J. L., Sharp, M. A., & Al-Dujaili, E. A. S. (2006). Maternal personality and reproductive ambition in women is associated with salivary testosterone levels. Biological Psychology, 71, 29–32.
Edin, K., & Kafalas, M. (2005). Promises i can keep: Why poor women put motherhood before marriage. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.
Erdelyi, M. H., & Goldberg, B. (1978). Let’s not sweep repression under the rug. Toward a cognitive psychology of repression. In J. F. Kihlstrom, & F. J. Evans (Eds.), Functional disorders of memory (pp. 355–402). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Erikson, E. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: W.W. Norton.
Eshre Capri Workshop Group (2001). Social determinants of human reproduction. Human Reproduction, 16, 1518–1526.
Fawcett, J. T. (1988). The value of children and the transition to parenthood. Marriage and Family Review, 12, 11–34.
Feldman, S. S., Biringen, Z. C., & Nash, S. C. (1981). Fluctuations of sex-related self-attributions as a function of stage of family life cycle. Developmental Psychology, 17, 24–35.
Feldman, S. S., & Nash, S. C. (1978). Interest in babies during young adulthood. Child Development, 49, 617–622.
Freeman, E. W., Boxer, A. S., Rickels, K., Tureck, R., & Mastroianni, L. (1985). Psychological evaluation and support in a program of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. Fertility and Sterility, 43, 48–53.
Gerson, M.-J. (1980). The lure of motherhood. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 5, 207–218.
Gerson, M.-J. (1983). A scale of motivation for parenting: The index of parenthood motivation. Journal of Psychology, 113, 211–220.
Gerson, M.-J. (1984). Feminism and the wish for a child. Sex Roles, 11, 389–398.
Gerson, M.-J. (1994). Standing at the threshold: A psychoanalytic response to Carol Gilligan. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 11, 491–508.
Gibson, D. M., & Myers, J. E. (2002). The effect of social coping resources and growth-fostering relationships on infertility stress in women. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 24, 68–80.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Glenn, E. N. (1992). Social constructions of mothering: A thematic overview. In E. N. Glenn, G. Chang, & L. N. Forcey (Eds.), Mothering: Ideology, experience and agency (pp. 1–29). London: Routledge.
Greil, A. L. (1997). Infertility and psychological distress: a critical review of the literature. Social Science Medicine, 45, 1679–1704.
Greil, A. L., Leitko, T. A., & Porter, K. L. (1988). Infertility: his and hers. Gender & Society, 2, 172–199.
Gustafsson, S. (2001). Optimal age at motherhood: theoretical and empirical considerations of postponement of maternity in Europe. Journal of Population Economics, 14, 225–247.
Happel, S. K., Hill, J. K., & Low, S. A. (1984). An economic analysis of the timing of childbirth. Population Studies, 38, 299–311.
Hare-Mustin, R. T., & Broderick, P. C. (1979). The myth of motherhood. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 4, 114–128.
Heilbrun Jr., A. B. (1981). Human sex-role behavior. New York: Pergamon.
Hoffman, S. R., & Levant, R. F. (1985). A comparison of childfree and child-anticipated married couples. Family Relations, 34, 197–203.
Hoffnung, M. (2004). Wanting it all: career, marriage, and motherhood during college-educated women’s 20s. Sex Roles, 50, 711–723.
Holloway, S. D., Fuller, B., Rambaud, M. F., & Eggers-Pierola, C. (1997). Through my own eyes: Single mothers and the cultures of poverty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Inhorn, M. C. (2003). “The worms don’t work”: male infertility and patriarchal paradoxes in Egypt. Men and Masculinities, 5, 236–256.
Jones, G. P., & Jacklin, C. N. (1988). Changes in sexist attitudes toward women during introductory woman’s and men’s studies courses. Sex Roles, 18, 611–622.
Jones, R. K., & Luo, Y. (1999). The culture of poverty and African-American culture: an empirical assessment. Sociological Perspectives, 42, 439–458.
Kalin, R., & Lloyd, C. A. (1985). Sex role identity, sex role ideology and marital adjustment. International Journal of Women Studies, 8(1), 32–39.
Karniol, R., Ekbali, G. B., & Vashdi, D. R. (2007). The impact of parental status and gender role orientation on caring and postconventional reasoning in young marrieds. Sex Roles, 56, 341–350.
Karniol, R., Gabay, R., Ochion, Y., & Harari, Y. (1998). Is gender or gender-role orientation a better predictor of empathy in adolescence? Sex Roles, 39, 45–60.
Kirkman, M. (2001). Thinking of something to say: public and private narratives of infertility. Health Care for Women International, 22, 523–535.
Knoke, J. D. (1976). Multiple comparison with dichotomous data. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 71, 849–853.
Kravdal, O. (1997). Wanting a child without a firm commitment to the partner: interpretations and implications of a common behaviour pattern among Norwegian cohabitants. European Journal of Population, 13, 269–298.
Linn, R. (1996). Thirty nothing: what do counselors know about mature single women who wish for a child and a family. International Journal for of the Advancement of Counseling, 18, 69–84.
Linn, R. (2002). Mature unwed mothers: Narratives of moral resistance. New York: Kluwer.
Lunney, G. H. (1970). Using analysis of variance with dichotomous dependent variables—an empirical study. Journal of Educational Measurement, 7, 263–269.
McLoyd, V. C., Cauce, A.-M., Takeuchi, D., & Wilson, L. (2000). Marital processes and parental socialization in families of color: a decade review of research. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 1070–1093.
Miall, C. E. (1989). Reproductive technology vs. the stigma of involuntary childlessness. Social Casework: The Journal of Contemporary Social Work, 1, 43–50.
Morell, C. (1994). Unwomanly conduct: The challenges of intentional childlessness. London: Routledge.
Palkovitz, R., & Copes, M. (1988). Changes in attitudes, beliefs and expectations associated with the transition to parenthood. Marriage and Family Review, 12, 183–199.
Peterson, C. D., Baucon, D. H., Elliott, M. J., & Aiken, F. P. (1989). The relationship between sex role identity and marital adjustment. Sex Roles, 21, 775–787.
Portugese, J. (1998). Fertility policy in Israel: The politics of religion, gender and nation. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Remennick, L. (2000). Childless in the land of imperative motherhood: stigma and coping among infertile Israeli women. Sex Roles, 43, 821–841.
Rich, A. (1976). Of woman born: Motherhood as experience and institution. New York: W.W. Norton.
Robichaud, M., Dugas, M. J., & Conway, M. (2003). Gender differences in worry and associated cognitive-behavioral variables. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 17, 501–516.
Russo, N. F. (1976). The motherhood mandate. Journal of Social Issues, 32, 143–153.
Russo, N. F. (1979). Overview: sex roles, fertility, and the motherhood mandate. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 4, 7–15.
Sandelowski, M., & Jones, L. C. (1986). Social exchanges of infertile women. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 8, 173–189.
Shah, J. Y., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2003). When opportunity knocks: bottom-up priming of goals by means and its effects on self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1109–1122.
Simonstein, F. (2005). A rational cure for prereproductive stress syndrome—a perspective from Israel: a rejoinder to Hayry, Bennet, Holm and Aksoy. Journal of Medical Ethics, 31, 557.
Taylor, M. C., & Hall, J. A. (1982). Psychological androgyny: theories, methods, and conclusions. Psychological Bulletin, 92, 347–366.
Thomson, E., & Hoem, J. M. (1998). Couple childbearing plans and births in Sweden. Demography, 35, 315–322.
United Nations. (2004). World fertility report 2003. Washington: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. New York: United Nations Publications.
Van Balen, F., & Trimbos-Kemper, T. C. M. (1995). Involuntary childless couples: their desire to have children and their motives. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 16, 137–144.
Wegner, D. M., & Zanakos, S. (1994). Chronic thought suppression. Journal of Personality, 62, 615–640.
Wehner, C., Kambskard, M., & Abrahamson, P. (2002) Demography of the family—the case of Denmark. Publication #33, Sociology Institute, University of Copenhagen.
West, C., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender and Society, 1, 125–151.
Widge, A. (2005). Seeking conception: experiences of urban Indian women with in vitro fertilization. Patient Education and Counseling, 59, 226–233.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Boucai, L., Karniol, R. Suppressing and Priming the Motivation for Motherhood. Sex Roles 59, 851–870 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9489-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9489-0