ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how common dilemmas of combining mothering and professional life are negotiated on- and off-screen. The chapter analyses experiences of combining mothering and film work and representations of motherhood on-screen. The study is based on interviews with women film-makers who belong to different generations and five films representing the caring for children in different ways. The need to secure economical subsistence and to cope with ideals of being a present mother are common themes in the interviews, and the chapter concludes that women’s experiences of mothering reveal gender biases in the organisation of the Swedish film industry. Further, the films analysed reflect societal changes and continuities in how motherhood is constructed, but more prominently, they evade any easy or stereotypical interpretations of mothers.
