The Cultural Contradictions Of Motherhood

The Cultural Contradictions Of Motherhood Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of The Cultural Contradictions Of Motherhood book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.

The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood

Sharon Hays
The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood Book PDF

Author : Sharon Hays
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 1996-01-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0300076525

Get Book

The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood by Sharon Hays Pdf

Working mothers today confront not only conflicting demands on their time and energy but also conflicting ideas about how they are to behave: they must be nurturing and unselfish while engaged in child rearing but competitive and ambitious at work. As more and more women enter the workplace, it would seem reasonable for society to make mothering a simpler and more efficient task. Instead, Sharon Hays points out in this original and provocative book, an ideology of "intensive mothering" has developed that only exacerbates the tensions working mothers face. Drawing on ideas about mothering since the Middle Ages, on contemporary childrearing manuals, and on in-depth interviews with mothers from a range of social classes, Hays traces the evolution of the ideology of intensive mothering--an ideology that holds the individual mother primarily responsible for child rearing and dictates that the process is to be child-centered, expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labor-intensive, and financially expensive. Hays argues that these ideas about appropriate mothering stem from a fundamental ambivalence about a system based solely on the competitive pursuit of individual interests. In attempting to deal with our deep uneasiness about self-interest, we have imposed unrealistic and unremunerated obligations and commitments on mothering, making it into an opposing force, a primary field on which this cultural ambivalence is played out.

Intensive Mothering

Linda Rose Ennis
Intensive Mothering Book PDF

Author : Linda Rose Ennis
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Family & Relationships
ISBN : 1927335906

Get Book

Intensive Mothering by Linda Rose Ennis Pdf

To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Sharon Hays' landmark book, The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood, this collection will revisit Hays' concept of "intensive mothering" as a continuing, yet controversial representation of modern motherhood. In Hays' original work, she spoke of "intensive mothering" as primarily being conducted by mothers, centered on children's needs with methods informed by experts, which are labourintensive and costly simply because children are entitled to this maternal investment. While respecting the important need for connection between mother and baby that is prevalent in the teachings of Attachment Theory, this collection raises into question whether an over-investment of mothers in their children's lives is as effective a mode of parenting, as being conveyed by representations of modern motherhood. In a world where independence is encouraged, why are we still engaging in "intensive motherhood?"

Flat Broke with Children

Sharon Hays
Flat Broke with Children Book PDF

Author : Sharon Hays
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2004-11-04
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0195176014

Get Book

Flat Broke with Children by Sharon Hays Pdf

This text explores the impact of recent welfare reform on motherhood, marriage, and work in women's lives. It also focuses on what welfare reform reveals about work and family life, and its impact on us all.

Modern Motherhood

Jodi Vandenberg-Daves
Modern Motherhood Book PDF

Author : Jodi Vandenberg-Daves
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2014-05-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813563800

Get Book

Modern Motherhood by Jodi Vandenberg-Daves Pdf

How did mothers transform from parents of secondary importance in the colonies to having their multiple and complex roles connected to the well-being of the nation? In the first comprehensive history of motherhood in the United States, Jodi Vandenberg-Daves explores how tensions over the maternal role have been part and parcel of the development of American society. Modern Motherhood travels through redefinitions of motherhood over time, as mothers encountered a growing cadre of medical and psychological experts, increased their labor force participation, gained the right to vote, agitated for more resources to perform their maternal duties, and demonstrated their vast resourcefulness in providing for and nurturing their families. Navigating rigid gender role prescriptions and a crescendo of mother-blame by the middle of the twentieth century, mothers continued to innovate new ways to combine labor force participation and domestic responsibilities. By the 1960s, they were poised to challenge male expertise, in areas ranging from welfare and abortion rights to childbirth practices and the confinement of women to maternal roles. In the twenty-first century, Americans continue to struggle with maternal contradictions, as we pit an idealized role for mothers in children’s development against the social and economic realities of privatized caregiving, a paltry public policy structure, and mothers’ extensive employment outside the home. Building on decades of scholarship and spanning a wide range of topics, Vandenberg-Daves tells an inclusive tale of African American, Native American, Asian American, working class, rural, and other hitherto ignored families, exploring sources ranging from sermons, medical advice, diaries and letters to the speeches of impassioned maternal activists. Chapter topics include: inventing a new role for mothers; contradictions of moral motherhood; medicalizing the maternal body; science, expertise, and advice to mothers; uplifting and controlling mothers; modern reproduction; mothers’ resilience and adaptation; the middle-class wife and mother; mother power and mother angst; and mothers’ changing lives and continuous caregiving. While the discussion has been part of all eras of American history, the discussion of the meaning of modern motherhood is far from over.

Mothering through Precarity

Julie A. Wilson,Emily Chivers Yochim
Mothering through Precarity Book PDF

Author : Julie A. Wilson,Emily Chivers Yochim
Publisher : Duke University Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2017-03-09
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780822373193

Get Book

Mothering through Precarity by Julie A. Wilson,Emily Chivers Yochim Pdf

In Mothering through Precarity Julie A. Wilson and Emily Chivers Yochim explore how working- and middle-class mothers negotiate the difficulties of twenty-first-century mothering through their everyday engagement with digital media. From Facebook and Pinterest to couponing, health, and parenting websites, the women Wilson and Yochim study rely upon online resources and communities for material and emotional support. Feeling responsible for their family's economic security, these women often become "mamapreneurs," running side businesses out of their homes. They also feel the need to provide for their family's happiness, making successful mothering dependent upon economic and emotional labor. Questioning these standards of motherhood, Wilson and Yochim demonstrate that mothers' work is inseparable from digital media as it provides them the means for sustaining their families through such difficulties as health scares, underfunded schools, a weakening social safety net, and job losses.

Taking the Village Online

Lorin Basden Arnold,BettyAnn Martin
Taking the Village Online Book PDF

Author : Lorin Basden Arnold,BettyAnn Martin
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1772580821

Get Book

Taking the Village Online by Lorin Basden Arnold,BettyAnn Martin Pdf

The contributing authors in this anthology address diverse topics in mothering and social media, including framing of stepmothers in online forums, mothering in the digital diaspora, the construction of the "bad mother" on Twitter, immersive gaming and parenting classes, virtual mother outlaws, alternative mothering websites, feminist parenting, and more. While the works are primarily rooted in critical and feminist perspectives, a variety of methodologies and approaches to studying mothering and social media are represented in this text, and encourage a robust and thoughtful examination of the role of interactive media in the maternal experience. Lorin Basden Arnold, Ph.D. is a family communication and gender scholar. Her recent scholarly work has primarily related to understandings and enactments of motherhood.

Militant Lactivism?

Charlotte Faircloth
Militant Lactivism Book PDF

Author : Charlotte Faircloth
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2013-03-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780857457592

Get Book

Militant Lactivism? by Charlotte Faircloth Pdf

Following networks of mothers in London and Paris, the author profiles the narratives of women who breastfeed their children to full term, typically a period of several years, as part of an 'attachment parenting' philosophy. These mothers talk about their decision to continue breastfeeding as 'the natural thing to do': 'evolutionarily appropriate', 'scientifically best' and 'what feels right in their hearts'. Through a theoretical focus on knowledge claims and accountability, the author frames these accounts within a wider context of 'intensive parenting', arguing that parenting practices – infant feeding in particular – have become a highly moralized affair for mothers, practices which they feel are a critical aspect of their 'identity work'. The book investigates why, how and with what implications some of these mothers describe themselves as 'militant lactivists' and reflects on wider parenting culture in the UK and France. Discussing gender, feminism and activism, this study contributes to kinship and family studies by exploring how relatedness is enacted in conjunction to constructions of the self.

Maternal Desire

Daphne de Marneffe
Maternal Desire Book PDF

Author : Daphne de Marneffe
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2019-05-14
Category : Family & Relationships
ISBN : 9781501198281

Get Book

Maternal Desire by Daphne de Marneffe Pdf

Esteemed psychologist Daphne de Marneffe examines women’s desire to care for children in an updated reissue of her “fascinating analysis that’s a welcome addition to the dialogues about motherhood” (Publishers Weekly). If a century ago it was women’s sexual desires that were unspeakable, today it is the female desire to mother that has become taboo. One hundred years of Freud and feminism have liberated women to acknowledge and explore their sexual selves, as well as their public and personal ambitions. What has remained inhibited is women’s thinking about motherhood. Maternal Desire is the first book to treat women’s desire to mother as a legitimate focus of intellectual inquiry and personal exploration. Shedding new light on old debates, Daphne de Marneffe provides an emotional road map for mothers who work and mothers who are at home. De Marneffe both explores the enjoyment and anxieties of motherhood and offers mothers in all situations valuable ways to think through their self-doubts and connect to their capacity for pleasure. Drawing on a rich tradition of writers, such as Simone de Beauvoir, Adrienne Rich, Carol Gilligan, and Susan Faludi, as well as her experience as a psychologist and mother of three, de Marneffe illuminates how we express our desire to care for children. By treating maternal desire as a central feature of women’s identity—rather than as an inconvenient or slightly embarrassing detail—we can look with fresh insight at controversial issues, such as childcare, fertility, abortion, and the role of fathers. An “absorbing look at the enormous personal pleasure that women derive from mothering….Maternal Desire is a stirring book that celebrates women’s love for their children and mothering while also supporting their interest in careers and other pursuits” (Booklist).

In the Other Room

Fiona Nelson
In the Other Room Book PDF

Author : Fiona Nelson
Publisher : Fernwood Publishing
Page : 132 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Family & Relationships
ISBN : UOM:39015078789537

Get Book

In the Other Room by Fiona Nelson Pdf

Analyzing the impact of motherhood on a woman's life, this intriguing study investigates the relationships between new and experienced mothers. Acknowledging how beginning mothers are able to articulate, debate, and negotiate dimensions of their mothering experiences with other mothers, this discussion reviews the physical and social aspects of pregnancy, the daily work of new mothering, and the competing cultural constructions of motherhood. Examining a diverse group of first-time mothers and how they discussed their own experiences with what many have called "the mommies' club," this reference documents the results of their interactions--the sharing of information and resources, the establishment of hierarchies of authority within the community of mothers, and how women are able to discursively explore and construct their maternal identities. This study reveals how essential, valuable, and complex mothers' connections with other mothers are, and yet how wrought and ambivalent these relationships can be as well.

Perfect Madness

Judith Warner
Perfect Madness Book PDF

Author : Judith Warner
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2006-02-07
Category : Family & Relationships
ISBN : 1594481709

Get Book

Perfect Madness by Judith Warner Pdf

A lively and provocative look at the modern culture of motherhood and at the social, economic, and political forces that shaped current ideas about parenting What is wrong with this picture? That's the question Judith Warner asks in this national bestseller after taking a good, hard look at the world of modern parenting--at anxious women at work and at home and in bed with unhappy husbands. When Warner had her first child, she was living in Paris, where parents routinely left their children home, with state-subsidized nannies, to join friends in the evening for dinner or to go on dates with their husbands. When she returned to the States, she was stunned by the cultural differences she found toward how people think about effective parenting--in particular, assumptions about motherhood. None of the mothers she met seemed happy; instead, they worried about the possibility of not having the perfect child, panicking as each developmental benchmark approached. Combining close readings of mainstream magazines, TV shows, and pop culture with a thorough command of dominant ideas in recent psychological, social, and economic theory, Perfect Madness addresses our cultural assumptions, and examines the forces that have shaped them. Working in the tradition of classics like Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique and Christopher Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism, and with an awareness of a readership that turned recent hits like The Bitch in the House and Allison Pearson's I Don't Know How She Does It into bestsellers, Warner offers a context in which to understand parenting culture and the way we live, as well as ways of imagining alternatives--actual concrete changes--that might better our lives.

Spaces and Politics of Motherhood

Kate Boyer
Spaces and Politics of Motherhood Book PDF

Author : Kate Boyer
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 156 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2018-04-18
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781786603098

Get Book

Spaces and Politics of Motherhood by Kate Boyer Pdf

Spaces and Politics of Motherhood considers motherhood through themes at the cutting-edge of social and feminist theory including: materiality and material agency; place and memory in the formation of maternal identity; issues relating to parenting in public, and the politics of combining breastfeeding with wage-work.

Shadow Mothers

Cameron Lynne Macdonald
Shadow Mothers Book PDF

Author : Cameron Lynne Macdonald
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2011-02-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780520947818

Get Book

Shadow Mothers by Cameron Lynne Macdonald Pdf

Shadow Mothers shines new light on an aspect of contemporary motherhood often hidden from view: the need for paid childcare by women returning to the workforce, and the complex bonds mothers forge with the "shadow mothers" they hire. Cameron Lynne Macdonald illuminates both sides of an unequal and complicated relationship. Based on in-depth interviews with professional women and childcare providers— immigrant and American-born nannies as well as European au pairs—Shadow Mothers locates the roots of individual skirmishes between mothers and their childcare providers in broader cultural and social tensions. Macdonald argues that these conflicts arise from unrealistic ideals about mothering and inflexible career paths and work schedules, as well as from the devaluation of paid care work.

Motherhood Reconceived

Lauri Umansky
Motherhood Reconceived Book PDF

Author : Lauri Umansky
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 1996-08
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 9780814785621

Get Book

Motherhood Reconceived by Lauri Umansky Pdf

From the early days of second-wave feminism, motherhood and the quest for women's liberation have been inextricably linked. And yet motherhood has at times been viewed, by anti-feminists and select feminists alike, as somehow at odds with feminism. In reality, feminists have long treated motherhood as an organizing metaphor for women's needs and advancement. The mother has been regarded with suspicion at times, deified at others, but never ignored.The first book devoted to this complex relationship, Motherhood Reconceived examines in depth how the realities of motherhood have influenced feminist thought. Bringing to life the work of a variety of feminist writers and theorists, among them Jane Alpert, Mary Daly, Susan Griffin, Adrienne Rich, and Dorothy Dinnerstein, Umansky situates feminist discourses of motherhood within the social and political contexts of the 1960s. Charting an increasingly favorable view of motherhood among feminists from the late 1960s through the 1980s, Umansky reveals how African American feminists sought to redefine black nationalist discourses of motherhood, a reworking subsequently adopted by white radical and socialist feminists seeking to broaden the racial base of their movement. Noting the cultural left's conflicted relationship to feminism, that is, the concurrent demand for individual sexual liberation and the desire for community, Umansky traces that legacy through various stages of feminist concern about motherhood: early critiques of the nuclear family, tempered by strong support for day care; an endorsement of natural childbirth by the women's health movement of the early 1970s; white feminists' attempt to forge a multiracial movement by declaring motherhood a universal bond; and the emergence of psychoanalytic feminism, ecofeminism, spiritual feminism, and the feminist anti- pornography movement.

Heading Home

Shani Orgad
Heading Home Book PDF

Author : Shani Orgad
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 406 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2019-01-08
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780231545631

Get Book

Heading Home by Shani Orgad Pdf

Women in today’s advanced capitalist societies are encouraged to “lean in.” The media and government champion women’s empowerment. In a cultural climate where women can seemingly have it all, why do so many successful professional women—lawyers, financial managers, teachers, engineers, and others—give up their careers after having children and become stay-at-home mothers? How do they feel about their decision and what do their stories tell us about contemporary society? Heading Home reveals the stark gap between the promise of gender equality and women’s experience of continued injustice. Shani Orgad draws on in-depth, personal, and profoundly ambivalent interviews with highly educated London women who left paid employment to take care of their children while their husbands continued to work in high-powered jobs. Despite identifying the structural forces that maintain gender inequality, these women still struggle to articulate their decisions outside the narrow cultural ideals that devalue motherhood and individualize success and failure. Orgad juxtaposes these stories with media and policy depictions of women, work, and family, detailing how—even as their experiences fly in the face of fantasies of work-life balance and marriage as an egalitarian partnership—these women continue to interpret and judge themselves according to the ideals that are failing them. Rather than calling for women to transform their feelings and behavior, Heading Home argues that we must unmute and amplify women’s desire, disappointment, and rage, and demand social infrastructure that will bring about long-overdue equality both at work and at home.

The Politics of Motherhood

Alexis Jetter,Annelise Orleck,Diana Taylor
The Politics of Motherhood Book PDF

Author : Alexis Jetter,Annelise Orleck,Diana Taylor
Publisher : UPNE
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : Motherhood
ISBN : 087451780X

Get Book

The Politics of Motherhood by Alexis Jetter,Annelise Orleck,Diana Taylor Pdf

Essays and interviews explode the myth of apolitical motherhood by showing how 20th century women have politicized their role as mothers in a wide range of social contexts.