Who wants the children?: Some relationships among attitudes toward children, parents, and the liberation of women.

A survey of relationships among attitudes toward children parents and the womens liberation movement used a questionnaire covering the following self-reporting areas: 1) marital status and age 2) father at home 3) working mother 4) creativity of child rearing 5) value of child rearing to society 6) mother and fathers nurturance 7) attitudes toward womens liberation. The sample consisted of undergraduates: 109 men (M) and 133 women (W) from an introductory psychology classroom and 47 older women from a Continuing Education for Women (CEW) program. Respondents were grouped into 4 categories by attitude toward having and rearing children: highly positive moderate low and inconsistent. Highly positive subjects ranked child rearing as more creative. The creativity of child rearing was ranked highest by CEW second by W and lowest by M. Highly positives considered child rearing more socially valuable. Proliberation women ranked child rearing as more creative but themselves less interested in it; they were less eager to have children and remember less care from their parents. Proliberation women evaluated fathers more poorly than mothers and had more positive feeling for their fathers. Proliberation women associate motherhood with the low status of women. We must come to view children as desirable and child rearing as not incompatible with other creative activities.