This paper exists because of two recent, extraordinarily important books. Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born (New York: Bantam Books, 1977), clearly demonstrates the impact of patriarchy on the institution of mothering. After Rich it is impossible to talk of women's natural role. Nancy Chodorow, The Reproduction of Mothering (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978), shows how patriarchy effects individual personality development. What these writers laboriously set out to prove, I am privileged to be able to take as given. Nancy Chodorow read an earlier draft of this paper and made insightful comments and suggestions. I am indebted to her for these, as well as for support and discussions throughout the process of writing. In addition, I have profited from careful comments by Karen E. Paige and Guy E. Swanson. Conceptual and factual errors, however, remain my responsibility. I am grateful for the support of NIMH training grant MH 15122-03, which I received during part of this project. The title of the paper requires additional definitions and discussion. Throughout, I will talk about mothering as a woman's experience with her infant. Cross-cultural evidence indicates that early caretaking responsibilities fall almost universally to mothers (Michelle Z. Rosaldo, A Theoretical Overview, in Women, Culture and Society, ed. Michelle Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere [Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974]). In spite of media talk of househusbands, a variety of recent articles on dual-career professional couples indicates that, even among these couples, caretaking of small children is the woman's domain (Jeff B. Bryson and Rebecca Bryson, Dual-Career Couples, a special issue of the Psychology of Women Quarterly [vol. 3, no. 1] [New York: Human Sciences Press, 1978], passim). I define maternal sexuality in the most general way, as a woman's sexual feelings or behaviors while she is involved in tasks normally associated with motherhood. This does not specify who arouses the feelings and to whom they are directed, nor does it narrow down the tasks to only those which involve direct interaction with children. I will discuss asexual motherhood as both