Secret Daughter

Kavita’s and Somer’s stories are both defined by their long and difficult journeys toward motherhood. Throughout Secret Daughter, a central theme of the book involves casting an eye on the strength and fortitude of mothers as they move through extraordinary feats related to pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing. Mothers are celebrated in the book, but as women, they are also oppressed. Both Kavita and Somer face challenges as women moving through the world, due to gender bias in a patriarchal world that largely favors men. The book also, more broadly, celebrates women and their “feminine power,” as Kavita’s mother refers to it in Chapter 20.

Not every woman’s road to motherhood is the same, and motherhood is not necessarily a “natural” experience for every woman. Somer’s infertility prevents her from becoming a mother; Kavita’s life circumstance, that she gives birth to two female children, prevents her from mothering those children. Somer makes friends in Chapter 40 who embrace their single, child-free life. Still, the compulsion to be a mother—and the many different forms motherhood takes—is a powerful force in Secret Daughter. Somer herself fights against the idea that biological motherhood and womanhood are one in the same: “Everyone acts as if being a woman and a mother are inextricably intertwined.