ABSTRACT
The Neutered Mother presents a gendered noun, degendered by the adjective that precedes it—an opposition of meaning that mirrors the conflicts in culture and in law over the significance and potency of the symbol of Mother. This chapter aims to assess the evolution of the symbolic aspects of "Mother" in modern family law reform. It offers an argument for revitalization of the powerful and positive aspects of the Mother symbol to effect changes in law for real life mothers. The chapter focuses on the law reform activities consistent with the stated position of liberal legal feminists. Family law both reflects and contributes to our cultural understandings of the traditional family roles of mother, father, husband, wife and child. The idealized "nuclear family" is a sexual family and its dominance in social and legal thought has restricted real reform and doomed to recreate patriarchy.
