1977: The indifferent mother

In this text published in 1977 in Les Cahiers du Grif, Françoise claims to have been an “indifferent mother” instead of having been a “castrator in the kitchen, laundry, mending…”. However, she experienced what she calls “the maternal instinct”, “at the most animal level possible”. But she denounces what male society has made of this instinct: a “means of oppression and alienation which reduces the woman to the rank of egg-laying female”. This text is followed by the Appeal of the women of the Eco-feminist Movement to the maternity strike (already published in 1974 in Charlie-Hebdo).