Woman Between Islam and Western Society
3. Western Woman
~ 116 ~
were to conceive,” she stated frankly, “I would have
an abortion. I like children very much. I consider it an
enormous challenge to raise them the way they should
be raised. It takes an awful lot of time and energy and
intellect to raise them to cope with the problems of a
pretty crummy world.” Suzanne had talked with
doctors, she said, about sterilization, but concluded
that she did not want to risk the possible physical and
psychological side effect.
“If you are a career woman, how can you bring the
child up?” Suzanne asked. “If a woman has a child,
it should be a full time occupation for at least the
first year, perhaps two or three. Three years is an
awful big bite out of a career, and I’ve spent a long
time preparing for my career.”
•
Noraine O’Callaghan
is against abortion — “It’s
murder she told
Time
-— and she worried that some
mothers use day care centers as a substitute for
child rearing. But she sympathizes with most of the
aims of women’s liberation, she said. Her one
reservation: “In order to get into the system, a
woman has to become like a man, and is therefore,
probably no better.”
