ABSTRACT

Interdisciplinary and intersectional in emphasis, the Routledge Companion to Motherhood brings together essays on current intellectual themes, issues, and debates, while also creating a foundation for future scholarship and study as the field of Motherhood Studies continues to develop globally.

This Routledge Companion is the first extensive collection on the wide-ranging topics, themes, issues, and debates that ground the intellectual work being done on motherhood. Global in scope and including a range of disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, literature, communication studies, sociology, women’s and gender studies, history, and economics, this volume introduces the foundational topics and ideas in motherhood, delineates the diversity and complexity of mothering, and also stimulates dialogue among scholars and students approaching from divergent backgrounds and intellectual perspectives.

This will become a foundational text for academics in Women's and Gender Studies and interdisciplinary researchers interested in this important, complex and rapidly growing topic. Scholars of psychology, sociology or public policy, and activists in both university and workplace settings interested in motherhood and mothering will find it an invaluable guide.

section Section I|44 pages

Maternal theory

chapter 1|17 pages

Maternal theory

Patriarchal motherhood and empowered mothering

chapter 2|15 pages

Feminist mothering

chapter 3|10 pages

Matricentric feminism

A feminism for mothers

section Section II|70 pages

Mothering through difference

chapter 4|14 pages

Queering and querying motherhood

chapter 5|12 pages

Disabled mothers

chapter 6|14 pages

Mothering while Black

Strengths and vulnerabilities in a sociopolitical racial context of structural inequality

chapter 8|11 pages

Indigenous mothering

Birthing the nation from resistance to revolution

chapter 9|9 pages

Voluntarily childless women

A look at Western society and the definition of motherhood

section Section III|72 pages

Mothers, mothering, culture, and art

chapter 10|14 pages

Mediated celebrity motherhood

Representing the norms, values, and practices promoted by and through celebrity moms

chapter 11|9 pages

Feminist art and motherhood

An overview

chapter 12|9 pages

Religions and mothers

chapter 13|11 pages

Mothers and music

chapter 15|12 pages

Motherhood memoirs

section Section IV|64 pages

Mothering and health

chapter 16|10 pages

Beyond disordered brains and mother blame

Critical issues in autism and mothering

chapter 17|11 pages

No fixed address

The everyday health challenges of mothers living in an emergency homeless shelter

chapter 18|10 pages

Midwifery in historical and contemporary perspective

The collusion of race, class, and gender

chapter 19|19 pages

Mothers in prison

Matricentric feminist criminology

chapter 20|12 pages

Abused women’s mothering experiences

Making the invisible visible

section Section V|62 pages

Mothering, families, and domestic space

chapter 21|5 pages

From home to house

Neoliberalism, mothering, and the de-domestication of the private sphere?

chapter 22|10 pages

Mothering or parenting?

chapter 23|10 pages

Homing in on domestic space

The boundaries and potential of home-making

chapter 25|21 pages

Mothers and sons

section Section VI|42 pages

Mothering and work

chapter 26|12 pages

Mothers and work

Social reproduction and the labours of motherhood

chapter 27|10 pages

The lasting impacts of “The Opt Out Revolution”

Disciplining working mothers

section Section VII|56 pages

Mothering, economics, and globalization

chapter 31|13 pages

Mothering and the economy

chapter 32|12 pages

Transnational motherhood

Conceptualizing ideas of care here and there

section Section VIII|48 pages

Mothering, governance, and politics

section Section IX|45 pages

Mothering and activism

chapter 38|9 pages

The politics of motherhood

Maternal appeals in the public sphere

chapter 39|10 pages

Mothering and activism

chapter 40|14 pages

Reproductive justice as environmental justice

Contexts, coalitions, and cautions