ABSTRACT
The ideology of intensive motherhood has a powerful influence within today’s modern family, as well as within wider society. Yet, a disconnect exists between the idealized standards of intensive mothering and the reality of the various and diverse social positions, locations, and circumstances in which many women carry out their mothering. In recent years, mothers who are victims of domestic violence are one group of mothers who have become especially criticized, stigmatized, and vilified for mothering outside the socially constructed boundaries of “good mothering” because they have lived in circumstances of abuse. Even though abused mothers are the victims, they are often unjustly perceived and characterized as “bad mothers” because their ability to shelter, care for, protect, and provide a safe and secure environment for their children is called into question and deemed deficient. Despite the increasing marginalization of abused mothers, our knowledge about mothering in the context of domestic violence is relatively recent and limited in scope. This chapter provides an important background for understanding the multiple and varied ways that abused women’s mothering has thus far been framed, explored, and discussed in scholarly work, and how this framing shapes the ways that abused mothers are constructed, perceived, and treated in wider society.
