Autonomy and motherhood

Recently, increasing numbers of middle-class women have been choosing to continue to pursue their careers even during the early phases of their children's development. In some mental health circles, this has led to concern about the compatibility between motherhood and the autonomy which such women are demonstrating. Because of the canons of their training, most mental health professionals have definite expectations about the role of the mother in child development and a definite set of criteria for evaluating whether or not a given woman is a "good enough" mother. This underlying attitude is voiced in their concern with such questions as: "What are the boundaries between the woman's right to self-development and her legitimate pride in self-sustenance and the child's right to a psychologically available mother, who can act as a model and can guide her child's development?" Within this belief system, the notion of autonomy evokes not only the idea of self-fulfillment and independence but also the specter of selfishness and self-indulgence. Therefore, a mother's autonomy is viewed as being a rather suspect condition for the child's healthy growth and development. The object of this paper is to review the concept of the "good enough" mother, to examine and to define the concept of autonomy, and to consider whether or not the two can be compatible.