Can Zombies Free Women From The Mothering Role?

In Nancy Chodorow's The Reproduction of Mothering, Chodorow seeks to describe how the social construction of "mothering" and the patriarchial society we live in came to be, as well as how people need to move toward less rigid gender roles.

Chodorow first seeks to give backround to how "mothering" came to be. She acknowledges that throughout history women have been confined to the home because of their biological connection to the children. As time has progressed and science has started to dispute the validity of women being the sole nurturer because of biological predispositions our patriarchal society has moved to keep women in the home by creating the idea that women must be nurturing and caring, while men seek to stay in the public sphere.

Chodorow says the to combat this social construction of gender roles people must move towards coparenting as well as attempting to escape the endless cycle of mymicing the same gender parent.

I think that presently, although not  anywhere near perfect, our society has taken steps towards gender equality. The media in America controls many people's perception of gender, and how men and women are supposed to act. Many of the mainstream TV shows advertise women as the mother and men as the provider. The Walking Dead has slowly but surely started to challenge these norms.

In the beginning of the show there were still plenty of mothers mothering, but as people started to fall victim to zombie attacks the mothering role started to erode. In the current season there are no mothers. Women are not confined to caring for the camp or the children, but have equal say in what goes. They are on the frontlines killing zombies side by side with men.

There is a baby on the show named Judith. Judith's birth mother died, and in almost every scene she is being held by a man. The man in most cases is the very strong and masculine Tyrese. Tyrese takes pride in caring for Judith and mothers her as well as any mother could during a zombie apocolypse.

These subtle changes to what most people believe to be normal are actually quite brilliant. The Walking Dead shows that women are equally as capable as men when it comes to killing and protecting themselves, and men can make great mothers.

It pains me that women can only escape the mothering role when confronted with a zombie apocolypse, but hey progress is progress.