It’s hard to imagine, but there are still people in the US who think a woman is worthless if she can’t bear children. Is a woman truly less valuable if she can’t have children?
A woman, after having a miscarriage that was in no way her fault, finds that she is unlikely to ever be able to carry a child to term again. She begins having difficulty in her marriage. It eventually comes out that her Baptist Christian husband believes that a woman who can’t bear children is an unworthy wife. The marriage becomes strained, violent, and eventually dissolves. This is a true story, and a rather unfortunate one.
How is it that anyone can devalue a woman who is unable to bear children? Even if one is looking at the situation from a religious standpoint, and believes its God’s choice, does that mean that God or her husband should love her any less? Isn’t she still a human being, a woman and a wife? Unfortunately, these archaic beliefs of a woman’s value being based on her ability to create a family still exist.
While this belief seems to be mostly perpetuated by religion and men, it exists in women as well. How many women do we see taking extreme measures to bear children to make themselves complete? How many women in their 30’s who have no children are looked at by society as if there’s something wrong with us? Even now women are still living with the misconception that they are somehow less than other women if they don’t give birth to at least one child. Higher value also seems to be placed on women who have had several children.
A value of a woman should not be based on her fertility. There is so much more that goes into making a good and worthwhile person. A woman can be a wonderful wife without being able to provide children. Of course, there are alternatives now for couples unable to have children in the traditional manner. I wonder if the idea is as prevalent that a man is an unworthy husband if he’s unable to father children.
It’s sad to think that there are women who fear they’ll never have a loving relationship because they can’t or won’t bear a child. It’s equally sad to see women putting their lives at risk to bear children, so that they will feel whole, and seem of value in the eyes of others. There are already far too many people in the world; one would think it would be a responsible choice not to have children. Perhaps some women being unable to conceive is a higher power’s attempt to regulate the population. However you look at it, it seems it’s high time that these antiquated ideas be removed from the public mind.
