Yet if motherhood can be defined, rightly or wrongly, as the sole
function of women, it must be a function which in some degree expresses
the quality of womanhood as distinct from manhood. Even in this
artificially narrowed field of activity one should be able to find some
clue to the essential nature of women. It is therefore advisable first
of all to compare motherhood and fatherhood.
Fatherhood seems the more casual relationship of the two. It cannot be
proved with the same certainty as motherhood. In a masculine State,
where the father is the only legal parent, the institution of marriage
is necessary to prevent fathers from successfully disclaiming their
children. Maternity is not so easily denied, and in a feminine State
it could be proved without the aid of a marriage contract. Where the
mother is the sole legal parent civil marriage is unnecessary. Hence,
as the Vaertings point out, bastardy is unknown in a feminine State. A
mother’s connection with her child is more obvious and immediate than a
father’s. A man can be a parent without knowing it: a woman cannot.
Motherhood is also a greater tax on vital energy than fatherhood, even
if we take motherhood merely as a physical function. The process of
bearing a child culminates in a crisis which exhausts a woman’s energy:
to such an extent, indeed, that women often die of it. Moreover, it is
a process which, once initiated, is not under conscious control, so
that the reserve of energy drawn upon is not deliberately assigned to
this purpose by its owner. It is not at her free disposal to grant or
to withhold; it cannot be exhausted by an act depending on conscious
volition. The race in this respect is stronger than the individual.
It may be that here we are on the track of an essential difference
between men and women in the distribution of energy. If fatherhood
is a more casual relationship and uses up less time and energy than
motherhood, it looks as if the specifically sexual life of men does not
require such a jealously guarded reserve of energy as that of women.
This would be true of all men and all women, for such a fundamental
process as the propagation of the human race could not be left to a
section of humanity. As far as the race is concerned, all women are
potential mothers, and must have the necessary reserve of energy for
this function whether they intend to become mothers or not. They cannot
waste it even if they would. Thus men have more energy to waste on
their own individual purposes than women: that is to say, men have more
energy at their conscious disposal.