Mothers and Mothers-in-Law as Role Models in Relation to Religious Background

Abstract

SURPRISINGLY little attention in family research and writing has been directed at the mother and mother-in-law as a role referent for the young wife. These role models are important because they are filled by older, experienced married women who may influence in varying degrees the inexperienced young wife in developing skills, attitudes and self assessments in regard to her new wife role. The wife (and mother) role of the young married woman can often be constantly observed and evaluated by both her mother and mother-in-law. Not only can these persons see how the young wife functions but they can also assess her role behavior because many of her activities are in areas where they have extended experience. For many females, the primary influence in their socialization with respect to marriage has been their experiences in growing up in the parental home with their parents serving as marriage role models. As a result, the mother has generally influenced her daughter's expectations in reference to the daughter's future adult married woman's role from the time of earliest childhood. In the past, where stronger restrictions affected both the personal and social experiences of the unmarried daughter, the mother had greater significance as the primary marriage role model. Today, though, as the unmarried daughter grows older, she comes into contact in varying degrees with marriage role models outside the home. With the many changes related to the emancipation of the modern woman, the mother has lost at least some of her significance as a wife role model. This study focuses upon an aspect of change in regard to the contemporary woman's role. The specific premise is that the Jewish wife is closer and attaches greater importance to her mother as a role model than does the Protestant wife. The reasoning behind this hypothesis is that the Jewish family (especially the mother), because of religious-ethnic traditions and values, places a stronger stress on traditional definitions of the wife-mother role than do Protestant families. If this is true, it will be reflected in the Jewish wife being affectively closer to her mother than will the Protestant wife in relation to her mother. The Protestant wife, coming from a background with fewer traditional values, because of less ethnic and religious influences on family roles, will be less strongly influenced by her mother as a wife role model. I is further speculated that if the general hypothesis is true, the young Jewish wives will feel less close to their mothers-in-law and less respectful of them in their wife roles because of the strong significance attached to their mothers in essentially the same role. By contrast, the Protestant wives will be less inclined to make the same higher assessments of their mothers over their mothers-in-law because the