Summary Of The Female Experience-Unwanted Motherhood

Marriage in the 1800s and before then was brutal for a lot of women. In this time a woman’s place was in the home and her main purpose would be to take care of the home, husband and have his children. Women have suffered in silence and society has told them that it is the right of the husband to do as he pleases with her once they were married. A struggle that women has faced for many decades and even today is the ability to have control over their own bodies let alone their reproductive rights. Often, many women find themselves in the situation of unwanted motherhood. Consequently, men would exercise their patriarchal power over their wives by beating them.
Independence was not a characteristic society thought a woman should possess, those qualities were reserved for men and boys alike. Men were always portrayed as the authority figure whether it was a woman’s father or brother. He would have total control over her very existence. Reading “The Female Experience: An American Documentary”- “Unwanted motherhood” published in 1845 we get a sense of just how submissive women had to be. Treated as property their entire life they learn to accept the fact
The author of “Unwanted Motherhood” says “no woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body”. Many truths are in that statement, no choice equals no freedom. As I read the young woman’s journey in her marriage, I could not help but try to sympathize with her. Having to go through a situation where you have no one close to consult and you express your wishes to your husband only to have them ignored must be extremely frustrating. Not to mention she was putting her life on the line every time she was trying to abort and unwanted pregnancy. Caring for children is not easy, it is a job within itself. Many women lost their souls in marriage because they were unprepared for the sufferings and responsibility they were expected to