Women have always been seen as the matronly figure in history, and that still rings true in today’s society. In most marriages, even though a woman may be educated and in position to obtain employment, the wife will stay home to tend to the children. Gloria Steinem states, “American mothers spend more time with their homes and children than those of any other society we know about”, showing that although women have the freedom to do what they want, they lack the opportunity because of their children (All Our Problems). When Edna left the children with their grandmother one summer, she recalls their absence as “a sort of relief, though she did not admit this even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her” (18). Edna would not have chosen this lifestyle, and it is a responsibility she wasn’t prepared for that consumed most of her time. Children are a job in themselves, and require a lot of attention, preventing women from striving for anything but being a good homemaker.
Mothers also feel pressure by societies view of the ideal family. In both eras, a typical, happy family elected the women as the caregiver and the man as the moneymaker. As Edna’s husband says, “If it was not a mothers place to look after children, whose on earth was it?” (5). Modern women feel the desire to fit the responsibility society had built for them, and often strive to be the “good mother”. This expectation comes from a new emphasis on the intensive mothering and attachment