The Dominance of Women in Parenting Responsibilities Essay

The Dominance of Women in Parenting Responsibilities - Essay Example The attitude sons develop is one that may devalue women as mere caregivers of humanity, while men go on to more important endeavors such as seeking livelihood and providing for the family’s basic needs. Social learning theories contend that this kind of learning may have been acquired from children’s observations of their parents’ life patterns. Although society has historically assigned women the role of a nurturer of the family, Chodorow raises feminist protests as to the role men should likewise play in parenting. She asserts that men should level themselves with their wives in terms of being parents and not leave all the parenting responsibilities to them. Only then can the cycle of reproduction of mothering or in most cases, pseudo-solo parenting by mothers, be stopped. Sociobiological theories link the bonds between mothers and their children. It contends that mothers are biologically predisposed to care for their infants. Nine long months in the womb, the fetus affects the mother and its dependence on her likewise affects her. For example, a stressed mother can hinder the normal brain processes of brain masculinization of her unborn child. T. Berry Brazelton, a prominent child psychologist claims, in a good interaction mother and baby synchronize with each other from the beginning, and that the pathways may be set up in intrauterine life ready to be entrained, especially by the mothers, immediately after birth" Biological studies indicate that when human babies are born, their brains are underdeveloped, hence are â€Å"born highly dependent and in constant need of care.†Ã‚