ABSTRACT
The key argument of this chapter is that political power, in its most variegated forms, impacts motherhood and mothering in significant ways. First, narratives about what constitutes the “nation” delineate mother’s social and political functions within any given country. Second, once constituted, nation-states regulate who can mother, what family is and how mothering should be exercised. Historically, mothers have contested these effects of political power by becoming powerful activists, by “entering the state,” and perhaps most importantly, by transmitting to their children social values that challenge the prevailing social normativity.
