Rebecca's Reviews > Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution

This is an excellent book about the myths and stereotypes surrounding motherhood, contrasted with the reality of Rich’s experience as a mother of three sons. It is an academic-level work and can be fairly heavy going, which is why I started skimming at about page 55 (though I did slow down and read in its entirety the late chapter that felt most relevant to me, “Motherhood and Daughterhood”). Though it was originally published in 1976, we’re still in thrall to the patriarchal system of motherhood that Rich describes and dates back to the dawn of monotheistic religion. She writes about the bodily reality of motherhood and the crisis of purpose for both mothers and non-mothers: is becoming a mother really the only marker of a woman’s success? How can a separate identity as an artist be carved out and sustained? New books about motherhood arrive every year – I’m looking forward to Sheila Heti’s, for instance – but it’s hard to imagine one more complete and profound than this.