ABSTRACT
For hundreds of years, women across the globe have appealed to maternity in an effort to effect change in the public sphere, yet scholars disagree about the utility and efficacy of maternal activism. In this chapter, I offer an overview of the use of maternal appeals by activists across time and place, drawing attention to causes for which such appeals have been widely used, including peace activism, labor activism, and environmental justice. I then address scholarly controversies surrounding maternal activism, including whether maternal appeals promote essentialist views of women or whether the performance of maternity can be unmoored from essentialist assumptions; whether maternal appeals limit or expand the causes for which women are seen as viable actors; and whether maternal appeals reinforce or challenge hierarchies around race and class. Ultimately, I argue that maternity is a potentially powerful stance from which to effect change, but it must be used carefully, with awareness of both the benefits and the pitfalls that accompany it.
