ABSTRACT
In the course of the eighteenth century, motherhood in metropolitan society was increasingly presented as a woman’s main identity. Novels, conduct books, medical treatises and magazine essays not only glorified this identity but also specified the main duties expected of mothers, as it was assumed that although motherhood was a natural thing it could be improved upon. A mother first of all had to raise healthy children. This duty implied, amongst others, that she had to provide her children with nutritious food and had to keep them clean. Second, she was expected to show a deep affection for her children by staying within the close proximity of a newborn infant, giving individual attention to each child, and by undertaking such activities as singing and talking to her children. Third, she had to turn her children into responsible citizens, which meant that she had nurture their morality through persuasion and example and inculcate in them general standards of behaviour by teaching them industry, regularity, correct speech, and discipline. And finally, she was supposed to put her children’s needs before her own. Women who did their utmost to be a caring, loving, responsible and self-effacing mother were elevated to a higher status within society, while women who did not fully embrace this motherhood ideal were regarded as abnormal and also as unfeminine. 1
