Should bearing the child mean bearing all the cost? A Catholic perspective on the sacrifice of motherhood and the common good

Logos - Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture

Volumn 10, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 15-33

  Schiltz, Elizabeth R ^a  

^a University of St Thomas School of Law

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 60950399202     PISSN: 10916687     EISSN: 1533791X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/log.2007.0029     Document Type: Review

References (51)

1. Ann Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2001), 87 and n. 1. Crittenden cites a calculation by economist June O'Neill, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, who compares wages of women between the ages of twenty-seven and thirty-three who had never had children with wages of men
2. Mary Becker, "Care and Feminists," Wisconsin Women's Law Journal 17, no. 57 (2002): 103
3. Joan Williams, "'It's Snowing Down South': How to Help Mothers and Avoid Recycling the Sameness/Difference Debate," Columbia Law Review 102, no. 812 (2002): 827
4. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Creating a Life (New York: Talk Miramax Books, 2002), 141. Hewlett suggests the existence of a "family premium" for men's wages, meaning that married men with children out-earn other men by 10 to 40 percent
5. See Gornick and Meyers, Families, 47-49
6. But see also Crittenden, Price, 99, who suggests that having a working wife depresses male incomes by almost 20 percent
7. citing Tamar Lewin, "Fathers Whose Wives Stay Home Earn More and Get Ahead," New York Times, Oct. 12, 1994
8. Mary Ann Glendon, Address to Economic and Social Council Commission on the Status of Women, March 7, 2005
9. Sadly, and inexcusably, poverty rates for women and children in the United States are higher, relative to poverty rates for men, than they are in many industrialized countries. See also Becker, "Care," 104-5, who compares poverty rates for women and children with poverty rates for men in nine industrialized countries, including the United States
10. As Gornick and Meyers have remarked and documented, "The U.S. poverty rate among families with children is exceptional in cross-national terms" (Families, 73-75)
11. Maxine Eichner, "Review Essay: Dependency and the Liberal Polity: On Martha Fineman's The Autonomy Myth," California Law Review 93 ,no. 1285 (2005): 1288
12. Martha Albertson Fineman, The Autonomy Myth: A Theory of Dependency (New York: New Press, 2004)
13. Eva Feder Kittay, Love's Labor (New York: Routledge, 1999)
14. Joan Tronto, Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care (New York: Routledge, 1993)
15. Robin L. West, Re-Imagining Justice (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003)
16. Joan Williams, Unbending Gender (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000)
17. For the "inevitability and normality of dependency," see Eichner's "Review," 1286
18. Alasdair MacIntyre, Dependent Rational Animals (Chicago: Open Court, 1999), 3-4
19. Examples of these arguments can be found in Katherine Franke, "Theorizing Yes: An Essay on Feminism, Law and Desire," Columbia Law Review 101, no. 181 (2001)
20. Mary Ann Case, "How High the Apple Pie? A Few Troubling Questions about Where, Why, and How the Burden of Care for Children Should be Shifted," Chicago-Kent Law Review 76, no. 1753 (2001)
21. and Vickie Schultz, "Life's Work," Columbia Law Review 100, no. 1881 (2000)
22. Kittay, Love's Labor, 188. Becker also cites studies emphasizing the rewarding nature of motherhood ("Care," 57)
23. The term "repronormativity" appears to have been coined by Katherine Franke: Notwithstanding the prevalence of both childlessness and lesbianism, somehow reproduction continues to be regarded as more inevitable and natural than heterosexuality. That is to say, repronormativity remains in the closet even while heteronormativity has stepped more into the light of the theoretical and political day. Reproduction has been so taken for granted that only women who are not parents are regarded as having made a choice - a choice that is constructed as nontraditional, nonconventional, and for some, non-natural. ("Theorizing," 185)
24. Becker, "Care," 69-70, 91-92
25. Williams, "Snowing," 828 (2002); Becker writes, There is no known society in all of human history in which carework went from being woman's work to equally divided between the sexes. ... Perhaps an equal division of carework might be possible in the future. Who can say? Even if it is, however, we need alternative strategies for the short term, ways in which women's well being can be improved and inequality lessened even though women continue to do most caretaking work
26. ("Care," 93) Fineman writes, We must reject the notion that the problem of work/family conflict should be cast as the problem of lack of equal sharing between women and men of domestic burdens within the family. We have gone down that road and it is a dead end. Our arguments for reform must now acknowledge that the societally constructed role of mother continues to exact unique costs for women
27. ("Autonomy," 171)
28. John Paul II, Laborem Exercens (On Human Work, 1981), no. 19: It is a fact that in many societies women work in nearly every sector of life. But it is fitting that they should be able to fulfill their tasks in accordance with their own nature, without being discriminated against and without being excluded from jobs for which they are capable, but also without lack of respect for their family aspirations and for their specific role in contributing, together with men, to the good of society
29. The true advancement of women requires that labor should be structured in such a way that women do not have to pay for their advancement by abandoning what is specific to them and at the expense of the family, in which women as mothers have an irreplaceable role John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio (On The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World, 1981),no. 22: There is no doubt that the equal dignity and responsibility of men and women fully justifies women's access to public functions. On the other hand the true advancement of women requires that clear recognition be given to the value of their maternal and family role, by comparison with all other public roles and all other professions. Furthermore, these roles and professions should be harmoniously combined, if we wish the evolution of society and culture to be truly and fully human
30. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life, 1995), no. 90: There needs to be set in place social and political initiatives capable of guaranteeing conditions of true freedom of choice in matters of parenthood. It is also necessary to rethink labor, urban, residential and social service policies so as to harmonize working schedules with time available for the family, so that it becomes effectively possible to take care of children and the elderly
31. John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, no. 19
32. Williams, Unbending, 112, 274 (paid maternity leave); 111-16 (proposals for nonmarginalized alternative work schedules, instituting flextime or shorter work hours without career advancement penalties, for persons with caregiving responsibilities)
33. Fineman, "Autonomy," xvii
34. See also Mona Harrington, Care and Equality: Inventing a New Family Politics (New York: Knopf, 1999), 48-49. In it, Harrington cites Tronto, Moral Boundaries: The key idea for a new politics of family care ... is to add care to the pantheon of national social values. That is, to assure good care to all members of the society should become a primarily principle of our common life, along with the assurances of liberty, equality, and justice. We need to elevate care to this level of importance for the basic reason that it is essential to human health and balanced development. It is also crucial to developing human moral potential, to instilling and reinforcing in an individual a sense of positive connection with others. And it is this sense of connection that makes possible the whole range of mutual responsibilities that allow the people of a society to respect and work toward common goals. As political theorist Joan Tronto puts it, thinking about care seriously, recognizing that everyone at different times is both a giver and receiver of care, underscores for people the fact of their personal and social interdependence. And, she says, this insight can enhance a commitment to the responsibilities of democratic citizenship
35. Case, "Apple Pie," 768, who argues against requiring employers to provide accommodations based on parental status
36. John Paul II, Centisimus Annus (On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum, 1991), no. 11, citing the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the World of Today, Guadium et Spes, no. 24 (italics added)
37. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio (On The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World, 1981), no. 42
38. Mary Ann Glendon, The Transformation of Family Law, 306-11 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989)
39. Helen Alvaré, "The Consistent Ethic of Life: A Proposal for Improving its Legislative Grasp," University of St. Thomas Law Journal 2, no. 2 (2006): 332-40
40. Helen Alvaré, "The Role of the Family in the Social Order," remarks presented at Plenary Panel Session, The Call to Justice: The Legacy of Gaudium et Spes 40 Years Later, Vatican City, March 18, 2005
41. John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem (1988), no. 7; Laborem Exercens, no. 4: "Each and every individual, to the proper extent and in an incalculable number of ways, takes part in the giant process whereby man 'subdues the earth' through his work."
42. John Paul II, Centisimus Annus, no. 11 (emphasis added)
43. John Paul II, in Mulieris Dignitatem, characterizes Jesus's conversation with Martha, the sister of Lazarus, as "one of the most important in the Gospel." After the death of Lazarus ... Martha is the one who talks to Christ, and the conversation concerns the most profound truths of revelation and faith: "Lord, if you had been there, my brother would not have died." "Your brother will rise again." "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.... Christ speaks to women about the things of God, and they understand them; there is a true response of mind and heart, a response of faith. Jesus expresses an appreciation and admiration for this distinctly "feminine" response, (no. 15)
44. John Paul II, Letter to Women, no. 4
45. John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, no. 30
46. Sibylle Von Streng, Woman's Threefold Vocation According to Edith Stein, in Women in Christ: Toward a New Teminism 105 (Michele M. Schumacher, ed. [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004])
47. Lawrence H. Summers, president of Harvard University, caused no small furor in January 2005 at a conference on Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce, when he suggested as possible explanations for the persistence of women in "high-end scientific professions," among other things, the relative unwillingness of women (compared to men) to provide "near total commitment to their work," and possible biological differences in mathematical and scientific ability between men and women (remarks at National Bureau of Economic Research Conference on Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce, Jan. 14, 2005, transcript available at http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2005/nber.html)
48. See listing of press coverage on this controversy at http://wiseli.engr. wisc.edu/news/Summers.htm#Press. While he initially tried to defend his comments, he eventually offered numerous public apologies for his remarks, pledged to listen more respectfully to his faculty (Sara Rimer and Patrick D. Healy, "Harvard President Vows to Temper His Style with Respect," New York Times [Feb. 23 , 2005])
49. established two task forces to "advance the causes of women on campus" (Piper Fogg, "Harvard President Issues Transcript of Controversial Remarks About Women in Science and Mathematics," Chronicle of Higher Educ. [Feb. 18, 2005]) and eventually resigned. "Be not afraid!" was the theme of Pope John Paul the Great's homily when inaugurated as pope, and was a constant refrain of his throughout his pontificate
50. (George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II [New York: Cliff Street Books, 1999])
51. MacIntyre, Dependent, 130