Getting Married · Chapter
The Old Maid's Right to Motherhood explained
Shaw argues that the right to bear children should not be contingent on marriage, particularly for capable, independent women who are deemed 'superfluous' in monogamic reckoning.
What happens
Shaw argues that the right to bear children should not be contingent on marriage, particularly for capable, independent women who are deemed 'superfluous' in monogamic reckoning. He contends that the best mothers are those who demand high conditions for maternity, and that current institutions penalize self-respect and degrade the national breed.
Themes in this chapter
Economic Dependence of Women
Shaw critiques the imposition of marriage as a condition for maternity, linking it to women's economic and social dependence.
Population and Social Consequences
The chapter explicitly discusses 'race welfare' and the sterilization of valuable maternal strains, invoking eugenic arguments.
Illusions of Romantic Love
Shaw dismisses sentimental notions of motherhood, arguing that the best mothers are those who are not enslaved by primitive instincts.
Key passages
“The right to bear a child, perhaps the most sacred of all women’s rights, is not one that should have any conditions attached to it except in the interests of race welfare.”
Motherhood is a fundamental right that should only be limited by considerations of racial improvement.
Shaw frames maternity as a sacred right, subordinating it only to eugenic concerns.
“Why should the taking of a husband be imposed on these women as the price of their right to maternity?”
There is no justification for requiring marriage as a prerequisite for women to become mothers.
Direct challenge to the marital condition on motherhood.
“The best mothers are not those who are so enslaved by their primitive instincts that they will bear children no matter how hard the conditions are, but precisely those who place a very high price on their services.”
Ideal mothers are those who demand favorable conditions for childbearing, not those driven by blind instinct.
Shaw inverts conventional sentimentality about maternal instinct.