The relationship between mothers and daughters affects women strongly at all stages of their lives. Even though not all women become mothers, all are obviously daughters, and daughters have mothers. Even daughters who never become mothers must counter the issues of motherhood, because the possibility and even the probability of motherhood remains. Yet this relationship is so often taken for granted that it is all but ignored, even by mothers and daughters themselves.

For any daughter, the relationship with her mother is the first relationship in her life, and may also be the most important she will ever have. David Lynn of the University of California, has pointed out that "little girls may have a particularly difficult time separating from their mothers because they are of the same sex", and therefore identify most deeply with the very person from whom they must "psychologically" separate themselves. Dependency has played a particular part in the social role of women; the daughter who remains dependent on her mother will transfer her dependency to her husband and will expect her daughter to be dependent on her, repeating the cycle. These roles are no different in the African-A

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: 1997.

Caplan, Paula J. "Don't Blame Mother" Mending the Mother-Daughter Relationship. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1986.

Mothering should involve both taking care of someone who is dependent and at the same time supporting that person in his or her efforts to become independent. This dual function is difficult to accomplish with sons; when a mother has a daughter, with whom she strongly identifies and whom she knows will never be encouraged by society to become independent, it is hardly surprising that she encourages her to remain dependent. Quite often the mother is the shaping and driving force of children specially African-American.

Emecheta, Buchi. The Family. New York: George Braziller, Inc. 1989.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Idelisse Malave, Paula Caplan, Clara Thompson, Nancy Chodorow, Edith Neisser, Gwendolen Pecola, University California, Claudia Frieda, Lifelong Relationship, Jean Harlow, mothers daughters, mother daughter, wives mothers, daughters mothers, relationship mother, bluest eye, lives women, sense sexual identity, mother-daughter relationship, feminine role, mother daughter learns, sexual identity, claims paula caplan, harper row publishers, york harper row,
Approximate Word count = 1915
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)