Adrienne Rich Motherhood Quotes, born Adrienne Cecile Rich on May 16, 1929, in Baltimore, Maryland, was an American poet, essayist, and feminist whose work profoundly shaped feminist thought. Her seminal book Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (1976), alongside her poetry and essays, explores motherhood as both a personal experience and a societal construct, delving into its complexities, challenges, and transformative power. Known for works like Diving into the Wreck (1973) and The Dream of a Common Language (1978), Rich won the National Book Award in 1974. These 15 quotes—sourced from her poems, essays, interviews, and Of Woman Born—reflect her insights on motherhood, identity, power, and resistance, capturing her incisive intellect and emotional depth.
15 Adrienne Rich Motherhood Quotes
- “The worker can unionize, go out on strike; mothers are divided from each other in homes, tied to their children by compassionate bonds; our wildcat strikes have most often taken the form of physical or mental breakdown.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “Motherhood, in the sense of an intense, reciprocal relationship with a particular child, or children, is one part of female process; it is not an identity for all time.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “The mother’s battle for her child—with sickness, with poverty, with war, with all the forces of exploitation and callousness that cheapen human life—needs to become a common human battle, waged in love and rage.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “This institution of motherhood, which we all have accepted as an inevitable and ‘natural’ condition of human society, has a history, and it is a history of constraint.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “Every infant born is testimony to the intricacy and strength of women’s bodies, and yet we are made to feel ashamed of this power.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “The experience of motherhood was eventually to radicalize me; but before that happened, the institution was there, waiting to co-opt my experience.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “To ‘be a mother’ is to enter a relationship that is at once biological, emotional, social, and political, and no woman enters it unprepared by the culture around her.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “We do not think of the power stolen from us and the power withheld from us, in the name of motherhood, as a theft.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “The repossession by women of our bodies will bring far more essential change to human society than the seizing of the means of production by workers.” (Interview, BrainyQuote, n.d.)
- “Motherhood is a state of siege, under conditions that have been made to seem natural, even sacred, but are profoundly unnatural to the spirit.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “The patriarchal institution of motherhood is not the ‘natural’ condition of women; it is a historical construct, designed to limit and control.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “No woman is only a mother; she is a person, with her own dreams, fears, and capacities, which motherhood both shapes and obscures.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “The bond between mother and child is real, visceral, undeniable—but it is also exploited to keep women in their place.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “To be a mother under patriarchy is to navigate a paradox: to be revered and erased, to be powerful and powerless, all at once.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
- “The mother’s voice—her anger, her love, her resistance—has been silenced by the myth of the self-sacrificing mother, but it is a voice that must be heard.” (Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, 1976)
Adrienne Rich’s motherhood quotes are a searing blend of feminist critique, emotional truth, and revolutionary insight, urging readers to rethink motherhood’s personal and political dimensions. Which one’s got you ready to challenge the myths? Drop it in the comments and keep her legacy of resistance alive!
Emma Thompson
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