Many people are against feminism because they claim to support families and think that feminists are against motherhood and families in general. This impression many people have of feminism, according to Elaine Tuttle Hansen, is “so ingrained . . . that in an anthology of writing from the women’s liberation movement . . . essays on ‘family’ are prefaced with this disclaimer: ‘We are not against love, against men and women living together, against having children. What we are against is the role women play once they become wives and mothers’” (5; qtd. in Hansen 5). However, this idea did not come out of nothing. Nowadays, many who claim to be feminists often associate motherhood with weakness, submission, and restriction; however, viewing the whole concept of motherhood as restricting and crippling is too simplistic, and will understandably incite opposition from many people.…show more content… Since motherhood is a social construct, it is the construction of the concept that may be considered accountable for weakening mothers, not the concept itself. Furthermore, perhaps it is through reconstructing the concept of motherhood that the concept will cease to restrain mothers. The depiction of motherhood and maternal protection in Nick Joaquin’s “The Amazing History of Elang Uling” and Estrella Alfon’s “Magnificence” emphasize the empowering side of motherhood. Through comparing and contrasting these two texts, a new and empowering view of mothers and women in general can be produced. There are many interpretations of the word “mother,” but for the purposes of this paper, the concept of “mother” will be limited to the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition: “a female parent, a woman who has given birth to a child” (qtd. in Hansen). Using this limited definition, however, must not suggest that other definitions of “mother” and “motherhood” are