The Politics of Motherhood

During the early twentieth century maternal and child welfare became a national issue for the first time. The child and maternal welfare movement had a significant material and ideological effect on women and it is therefore important to understand the mechanisms which structured and controlled it.

Originally published in 1980, The Politics of Motherhood asks why child and maternal welfare policy took the particular form that it did during the Edwardian and inter-war years and in doing so brings together a number of important themes relating to women and social policy. By taking into account not only the professionals involved, but also the mothers themselves – their reactions to the policies implemented and their own demands for change, the study brings to the forefront such themes as the relation between health and the family economy, the control of health care and the control of reproduction. Many issues arising from these themes were of present-day interest at the time, and still are today, such as the medicalisation of childbirth which has involved a loss of control by women over its management. This study illustrates the importance of stopping to examine the pedigree of our social policies and the need to ask whether a policy developed under one specific set of social, economic and political conditions can continue to be relevant in a markedly different situation.