Anna Roberts

Robison
FHS 1500
September 24, 2015
Essay on Biological Differences in Parenting
QUESTION
MOTHERS AND FATHERS
Except for the birthing process and breast-feeding, do you think that a mother's position
as a caregiver of an infant or child is biologically different from that of a father? Why?
What examples can you provide that support your answer?
ANSWER
The differences between a mother and father parenting are much more culturally
based rather than biological. Because the mother is the primary source of nutrition for the
baby during the pregnancy and usually the first few months after birth, it makes sense for
a maternal instinct to be strong and be thought to be of greater need overall compared to
what a paternal involvement can provide. While there are differences between the way
the sexes parent, gender expectation and assumed roles have created these distinctions.
Of my own accord, I believe that parenting after birth, with the exception of
breast-feeding, is fundamentally equal. To further verify my belief, I researched online
for articles or studies that proved biological differences were existent; I found no such
evidence. In fact, I believe that parenting is a complete partnership biologically or
socially. So often society feeds to us the differences between men and women
nurturing versus aggression, emotional providing versus material providing, sensitivity
versus strength, etc. We are taught to believe that these adjectives are definitions that
adhere directly to the sex we are born, and then in turn, circumscribe how we are as
parents. Many sources that discuss the differences in parenting between genders offer

explanations regarding parenting techniques that may be considered traditional, but that
word illustrates a man-made custom versus something inherited through a certain
chromosome.
To quote an article about being a mother in the modern times: There is broad
agreement among the public that it is harder to be a parent today especially a mother
than it was in the 1970s or 1980s. Fully 70% of the public says it is more difficult to be a
mother today than it was 20 or 30 years ago, while somewhat fewer (60%) say the same
about being a father. (Motherhood Today) If the core of having separate responsibility as
being a mother or a father was biological, then the level of challenge should be constant
for both sexes. But because how parents are or are supposed to be is dictated so heavily
by outside sources, the obligations and duties will change overtime based on what society
believes.
In the textbook, no biological differences regarding the responsibilities of a
mother versus a father are directly mentioned; but instead, discuss how society might
want us to believe that. National culture and parental attitudes are influential: Some
women believe that child care is their special domain and exclude fathers . . . Some
fathers think it is unmanly to dote on an infant. That is not equally true everywhere . . .
Less rigid sex roles seem to be developing among parents in every nation. (Berger,
2014, p. 148) These ideas again reinforce the notion that parenting is less biological
rather than socially ruled.
Growing up with a father who held more traditionally motherly qualities and a
mother who held more traditionally fatherly qualities, I was taught young that a sex or
gender does not define how individuals need to, or do parent. My mother often held

herself far from these biological patterns; I was only breastfed for four weeks, I often
turned to my dad for comfort or nurture, and my mother had a more aggressive and
intender attitude. I look at my own siblings and notice their distinct parenting
personalities one of my brothers is very affectionate, loving and passively active with
his son, while the other is much more aggressive, playful and physically active with his
son. These differences are not biological because of their gender, but because of their
personality.
Caring for a child is something that every mother and father is equally responsible
and capable of doing. Culture will appropriate how parenting should be done whether it
is by distinct roles or a combined force of duties. Biology only goes so far in what a
mother and father should do and can do, and the rest is up to the randomness of many
other societal, cultural, and individual variables.

REFERENCE LIST
Berger, K. S. (2014). Invitation to the life span (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Worth
Publishers.
"Motherhood Today: Tougher Challenges, Less Success." Pew Research Centers Social
Demographic Trends Project RSS. 1 May 2007. Web. 26 Sept. 2015.