The ‘New Moral Law’, the Family and Motherhood

Abstract

The ‘new moral law’ required a re-examination of relationships within the family unit, and within the new ‘social family’ envisaged for the future. Opinions on the role of fatherhood were divided, but there was almost universal agreement on the importance of the maternal role. In this respect the Saint-Simonians shared the emergent cult of motherhood. The Saint-Simonian women embraced motherhood as a source of dignity and respect, asserting the importance of their reproductive function. In addition they claimed ‘social maternity’ as their own, and thus reasserted their right to social power and influence. However, since the Saint-Simonians represented their ideal society in ‘maternal’ terms, the men appropriated the ‘maternal’ as their social role. Moreover, the new moral law’s association of women with ‘the flesh’ was consistent with the confinement of women to biological mothering. As men colonised the ‘maternal’ it became a new vehicle to assert their own social predominance. In this context the women’s emphasis on motherhood, even its physical aspect, assumed a radical dimension.¹ The debate over maternity and over the new ‘social family’ not only had implications for the roles of biological parents, but also formed part of the struggle to define the ideal world, and the pattern of gender relations within it.