Élisabeth Badinter said this quote

Childless people are always expected to explain themselves, although it would never occur to anyone to ask a woman why she became a mother (and to insist on getting good reasons)

~ Élisabeth Badinter

The realities of motherhood are often obscured by a halo of illusions. The future mother tends to fantasize about love and happiness and overlooks the other aspects of child-rearing: the exhaustion, frustration, loneliness, and even depression, with its attendant state of guilt.

~ Élisabeth Badinter

Increased responsibility for babies and young children has proved just as restrictive, if not more so, than sexism in the home or in the workplace.

~ Élisabeth Badinter

Motherhood is still the great unknown. For some, it brings incomparable happiness and enriches their identity. Others manage as best they can to reconcile contradictory demands.

~ Élisabeth Badinter