Analysis Of Motherhood Who Needs It By Betty Rollin

In her essay, “Motherhood: Who Needs It?”, Betty Rollin emphasizes the pressures of motherhood that society puts on women and highlights the fact that becoming a mother is not a natural instinct. “Women don’t need to be mothers any more than they need spaghetti,” psychiatrist Dr. Richard Rabkin stated, “But if you’re in a world where everyone is eating spaghetti, thinking they need it and want it, you will think so too.”
No person has an instinct to be a mother. We are constantly hearing the phrase ‘instinct’ and associating it with motherhood. However, this ‘instinct’ can be blamed more on the idea that all women should procreate as it was stated in the bible to “Be fruitful and multiple”. This idea further developed because before the 1880’s there were no functional contraceptives. So as Rollin so kindly put it,

That’s like saying if you have legs you should run track. While yes you may have the ability to run and it may present good benefits to your health, if you don’t want to, you shouldn’t feel forced. In the essay, Rollin goes on to state that “The reality of motherhood can turn women into terrible people. And judging from the 50,000 cases of child abuse in the U.S. each year, some are worse than terrible.” Not every woman is cut out to be a mother because at the end of the day, you have to be willing to put your needs on hold for the sake of your child, and not everyone is capable of doing so. She also mentions that “Women have child bearing equipment. To choose not to use the equipment is no more blocking what is indistinctive than it is for a man who, muscles or no, chooses not to be a weightlifter.” Just because women have the ability to have children does not mean every woman is required to have one. Only one person should have a say in whether or not she should have a child and that person is herself. No husband, parent, or society should pressure her to make that