Maternal Thinking (Ruddick)

The concept of maternal thinking was put forward in philosopher Sara Ruddick's 1989 book Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace. Ruddick argues that the practice of mothering engenders a certain style of thought—maternal thinking. Maternal thinking is characterized by deliberation about how to achieve the ends of the preservation, growth, and social acceptability of children. This style of thought is concrete, rather than abstract, and involves the use of a variety of faculties including reason, emotion, judgment, and care. While Ruddick notes that not all mothers or women are peaceable, she also claims that maternal thinking can provide a model for peace on the political level. Ruddick believes that thought develops in the context of a given practice. Since each practice is directed toward particular ends, thought is cultivated in deliberating about the means to those ends. Over time, a certain style of thought will prove to be more conducive to achieving the ends of a given practice. In this way, mothering, as a practice, will engender a unique manner of thought in its practitioners—maternal thinking.

Mothering entails meeting three demands, according to Ruddick: to preserve the life of children; to foster their physical, emotional, and intellectual growth; and to teach them to be socially acceptable. Thus maternal practice involves preservative love, nurturance, and training. To accomplish the tasks of mothering, mothers must strategize about how to meet the demands of caring for children. They [Page 727]make judgments, attempt to ask appropriate questions, assume certain standards for truth, consider their own methods, set priorities and aims, and consciously affirm certain values, thereby developing their intellectual capacities.

Maternal thinking involves the use of seemingly opposed faculties: reason, passion and love, challenging the idea that reason is detached and impersonal. Emotion can be thought provoking, but it is also thoughtful and reflective in itself. The practical nature of motherhood's ends encourages concrete thought over abstraction. Dilemmas, conflicts, and struggles do not detract from this process, but rather prompt the need for further thought.

Examples of how the practice of mothering encourages maternal thinking can be seen in the complexities of training a child to be socially acceptable. To avoid ostracism, a child must be able to understand and get along with others in their society. However, a mother's own values may often be at odds with the dominant culture. Thus, the dilemma may arise as to how she can train her children to be socially acceptable, while also teaching them to be people who she, herself, will like and respect. This is further complicated by the fact that a mother's own values are not necessarily stable and may be brought into question by the very practice of mothering itself. In addition, a mother often finds that as a child matures, his or her values may come to conflict with hers. For instance, the daughter of a pacifist mother may join the military, or a mother who values taking care of one's belongings may have a son who finds this to be materialistic. In such cases, a mother must consider how she can respect her child's values when she finds herself passionately opposed to them.

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