ABSTRACT
During the early stages of contemporary women's liberation movement, feminist analyses of motherhood reflected the race and class biases of participants. Although early feminists demanded respect and acknowledgment for housework and child care, they did not attribute enough significance and value to female parenting, to motherhood. Early feminist attacks on motherhood alienated masses of women from the movement, especially poor and/or non-white women, who find parenting one of the few interpersonal relationships where they are affirmed and appreciated. Female parenting is significant and valuable work which must be recognized as such by everyone in society, including feminist activists. The biological experience of pregnancy and childbirth, whether painful or joyful, should not be equated with the idea that women's parenting is necessarily superior to men's. Women and society as a whole often consider the father who does equal parenting unique and special rather than as representative of what should be the norm.
