ABSTRACT
Becoming an adult, in the sense of having been initiated into adulthood, means assuming the obligations of a conscious encounter with a vision that will orientate the rest of one’s life. Initiation by means of maternity, as we have already seen, is no longer automatic. And, if indeed it takes place, it realizes only one of the many ways of being a woman, and all of the other modes of femininity-its non-maternal modes-remain fallow. It might nearly be maintained that women need two initiations: one through which to achieve the ‘non-identity’ of being a mother, and of living in a state where the body and the instincts are dominant; and another that shores up a life as something more than simply a mother. Such further growth would free them from the obligation of remaining always faithful to an attitude of loving care which is finally rooted in instinct.
