Is Motherhood No Longer Valued?

Real Clear Politics brings us an article by David Warren in the Ottawa Citizen entitled, "What Happened to Motherhood?" Warren notes that

the idea that motherhood could be at the centre of a woman's being -- that being a mother was an honourable and even glorious condition -- began passing out of the culture

when contraception became popularized and normalized in the 1960s. Warren asserts that

The idea that a woman is "fulfilled" through her children; that her achievement in the world lives on through them, and through their children; that she is worthy of honour as mistress of home and family -- all that has passed.

Warren believes that

This ancient assumption was replaced by the notion that a woman exists to seek personal fulfilment, in and of herself. By the 1970s, when abortions were running at hundred-thousands each year in this country alone, children had become "an option". And moreover, an option that was likely to get in the way of the woman's career, by reducing her competitiveness with men. The emotional insecurities (or more positively, "maternal qualities") that are peculiar to being a woman, founded in nature by concern for the fate of her children, needed suppressing for her to get ahead.

If there is any truth to this assertion, then we really are in big trouble. I am blessed to live with a woman who loves being a mother, loves being a wife, and is a professional who encourages other moms and dads. She holds a place of honor in our family, and always will.