Psychological-Maternal Roles

a. Teaching
This leads us to a consideration of those women who are not mothers in actual fact. For
these women the essence of motherhood is in no way precluded. On the contrary, they can
manifest its broader and socially more useful aspects; they can embody spiritual
motherhood. This can be achieved in many ways, depending upon different abilities and
circumstances. One of the first and more important is that of education. The elementary
school teacher is often called upon to substitute for those mothers who do not know how or
are unable to educate their children properly. Therefore she should always consider her
function to be partly maternal. By doing so, she puts her relationship with her pupils in a
properly human light, and she avoids many of the mistakes that are frequent in education.
She effectively supplements the barren and over-intellectualized aspects of the educational
curriculum with a humanizing quality. Through her effect on her students, she can indirectly
perform a valuable function by spreading light and harmony among them and indirectly
among their parents.
The high school teacher also has a partially-maternal task. This is harder, more complicated
and more delicate than that of the elementary school teacher, just as it is harder and more
complicated for a mother to guide her adolescent children. The teacher must be able to
guide rapidly changing personalities, both morally and intellectually at the most critical
period of their development. Therefore, she must be mature, knowledgeable, and
disciplined. She needs much inner preparation, psychological insight, tact, and discretion. In
compensation, she will obtain results and satisfactions that are deep and gratifying. She
should really be able to awaken and to reveal people to themselves, and to rescue confused
and deluded young people from mistakes and faults. But to do this effectively, a teacher
must be more like an understanding and loving mother than like a formal instructor. In other
words, although she must demand from her pupils the necessary mental work, she should not
adhere to a sterile intellectualism, nor should she seek to impart a cold and often useless
mass of information to her students. Instead, she should deal with pupils as individuals, win
their confidence, and offer them parental interest and support.
b. Nursing
The maternal vocation of woman, the need of the feminine heart to devote itself to the
protection and care of others, finds one of its noblest expressions in the succor of the sick
and suffering. The nursing profession, provided it is taken up with humanitarian and
compassionate motives and feelings, may become a mission in the real sense of the word, as
in the case of Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of the great modern nursing movement.
c. Social Work
Another vocation in which women can do much good work while exercising a maternal
function is social work. In talking with some of these women who are employed by European
industries, I have been impressed by how much they can do for the families of workers in all
their social difficulties, in their relations with the authorities, in questions of health, etc.
Through this kind of work, many women may bring spiritual light and moral education to
thousands of working families. In the United States, social work takes many different
forms that are equally as influential for the promotion of physical welfare, psychological
health, and spiritual well-being. The advocacy of the needs of the poor, the underprivileged,
the sick, and the emotionally disturbed is a calling of high spiritual value. It is especially
suited to the expression of feminine qualities.
Although we have so far spoken in terms of specific roles, all the functions of those roles –
or at least some of them – can be developed and utilized by woman irrespective of her
situation; for instance, by an unmarried career woman in her many contacts and
relationships with her fellow human beings.