ABSTRACT
Carmen Ramos-Escandon examines the social construction of motherhood in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Mexico. By studying legal codes, Ramos-Escandon shows how changes in family legislation in Mexico aimed to serve the state policy of promoting a nuclear family ideology and a modernized form of submission of women to male authority. Her analysis of popular periodicals suggest that there was little expression, even in these sources, of ideological alternatives, although in practice the official norms were continually violated, as is evident especially in the very high rates of illegitimacy and female-headed households that prevailed.
