"Morality and its victim, the mother - what a terrible picture! Is there indeed anything more terrible, more criminal, than our glorified sacred function of motherhood?"

Emma Goldman’s statement presents a fierce critique of the ways in which society constructs and venerates motherhood. She exposes the harsh irony behind the glorification of the maternal role: while motherhood is publicly sanctified and sentimentalized, the actual women who fulfill this role are often its most profound victims. Her words press us to recognize that, under the weight of moral expectations and societal norms, mothers are frequently sacrificed at the altar of an ideal they did not construct and perhaps never chose.

Goldman’s inquiry, whether anything is more terrible or criminal than this “glorified sacred function”, lays bare the burdens imposed on women under the guise of morality. “Morality,” in this context, is not a neutral or universal force but rather a system of beliefs, customs, and expectations designed to keep women docile, sacrificial, and subservient. By casting motherhood as a duty of saintly self-denial, society not only strips mothers of autonomy but often uses their very identity against them. The sanctity ascribed to motherhood becomes a weapon, making it impossible for women to assert their own desires, needs, ambitions, or individuality without incurring guilt and judgment.

Goldman’s shock at such a “terrible picture” points to the hypocrisy of a culture that mythologizes motherhood while ignoring, or even perpetuating, the suffering of mothers. This so-called “sacred function” is criminal, not because caring for children is inherently oppressive, but because the way society structures motherhood entraps women in roles of endless obligation and emotional servitude. The mother is seen as morally complete only to the degree she denies herself. Thus, Goldman’s words challenge us to interrogate not motherhood itself, but the social and moral expectations that underpin it, a radical call to liberate both mothers and the concept of motherhood from oppressive idealization.