ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to introduce a mother-centred mode of feminism – what I have called “matricentric feminism” – consider the context and challenges of a mother-centred feminist theory and politic and to suggest directions for future research. Motherhood, it could be said, is the unfinished business of feminism. A matricentric feminism seeks to make motherhood the business of feminism by positioning mothers’ needs and concerns as the starting point for a theory and politic on and for women’s empowerment. This repositioning is not to suggest that a matricentric feminism should replace traditional feminist thought; rather, it is to emphasize that the category of mother is distinct from the category of woman and that many of the problems mothers face – social, economic, political, cultural, psychological, and so forth – are specific to women’s role and identity as mothers. Indeed, mothers are oppressed under patriarchy as women and as mothers. Consequently, mothers need a matricentric mode of feminism organized from and for their particular identity and work as mothers. Indeed, a mother-centred feminism is needed because mothers – arguably more so than women in general – remain disempowered despite forty years of feminism. My work does not rationalize or defend the need for a mother-centred feminism, as it takes it as a given. Instead, this chapter endeavours to describe and discuss this mode of mother-focused feminism – what I have termed “matricentric feminism” – which has emerged as a result of and in response to women’s specific identities and work as mothers.
