The study investigates the motherhood and non-motherhood conditions, and its implications to women in their construction of personal and collective self-esteem. The hypotheses to be tested were that mothers would present personal and collective self-esteem indexes significantly greater than non-mothers. The sample consisted of 310 women, between 30 and 69 years of age, distributed in two groups, mothers and non-mothers. Both groups were asked to answer the Brazilian versions of the Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale and Collective Self-Esteem Scale. Results confirmed both hypotheses. It was concluded that traditional conceptions and representations of motherhood still play an important role in the construction of feminine identity.
Personal self-esteem; collective self-esteem; motherhood
