ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the unique factors that impact on women as mothers in situations of domestic violence. The chapter recognise that not all women are mothers and women without children do experience domestic violence. Discourses define what it means to be a woman or a man and provide a range of gender appropriate subject positions, and discourses of motherhood are particularly powerful. Mothering can be defined as a socially constructed set of activities and relationships involved in nurturing and caring for people. It is women who do the work of mothering and motherhood is entwined with notions of femininity, all symbolically laden with relational devotion. Cultural messages such as trying to be a good wife, striving to keep the family intact, and the belief that children need a father, regardless of the costs to women and children, are common in women's experiences of domestic violence.