ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 introduces the principles of feminist poststructuralism that underpin this book, emphasizing the value of this perspective for exploring and problematizing the relationship between social norms and expectations around gender, parenthood and individual subjectivity. The key concept of discourses is defined and examined in detail, and several discourses of gender, parenting and motherhood that have been identified in existing literature are outlined. Finally, the chapter emphasizes the limitations of existing literature that explores themes of gender, parenthood, identity and society, showing that it has often tended to be vague about how discursive forces are identified, and how they operate in practice. The ways in which this book addresses these limitations will be further explicated in the chapters that follow.
