Table Of ContentTHE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION
TO MOTHERHOOD
Interdisciplinary and intersectional in emphasis, the Routledge Companion to Motherhood brings together
essays on current intellectual themes, issues, and debates, while also creating a foundation for future
scholarship and study as the field of Motherhood Studies continues to develop globally.
This Routledge Companion is the first extensive collection on the wide-ranging topics, themes,
issues, and debates that ground the intellectual work being done on motherhood. Global in scope
and including a range of disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, literature, communication
studies, sociology, women’s and gender studies, history, and economics, this volume introduces the
foundational topics and ideas in motherhood, delineates the diversity and complexity of mothering,
and also stimulates dialogue among scholars and students approaching from divergent backgrounds and
intellectual perspectives.
This will become a foundational text for academics in Women’s and Gender Studies and
interdisciplinary researchers interested in this important, complex and rapidly growing topic. Scholars of
psychology, sociology or public policy, and activists in both university and workplace settings interested
in motherhood and mothering will find it an invaluable guide.
Lynn O’Brien Hallstein, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric in the College of General Studies
and an Affiliated Faculty of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Boston University. She
is the author/(co)editor of five books, including Bikini-Ready Moms: Celebrity Profiles, Motherhood, and
the Body, which won the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender’s 2016
Outstanding Book Award, and has published in variety of feminist and communication journals.
Andrea O’Reilly, PhD, is a Professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at York
University. O’Reilly is founder and director of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community
Involvement, founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, and founder and
publisher of Demeter Press. She is the editor/author of 22 books including Matricentric Feminism: Theory,
Activism, and Practice (2016).
Melinda Vandenbeld Giles is a lecturer in Anthropology and English at Lakehead University (Orillia).
Her research focuses on neoliberalism, public policy and homelessness (particularly for mothers) in
Ontario. Melinda’s publications include her Demeter Press edited volume Mothering in the Age of
Neoliberalism, her co-edited volume The Routledge Companion to Motherhood, and her Inanna feminist
novel Clara Awake. Melinda’s work also appears in many Demeter Press edited collections, JMI ( Journal
of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement) and Development ( Journal of the Society
for International Development).
“This book is indeed a companion, a wise and wide-ranging guide for anyone who wants
to spend time exploring the world of contemporary motherhood studies. Across topics and
disciplines, it accompanies the reader to the most engaging sites in the field.”
– Joan B. Wolf, Associate Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies,
Texas A&M University, and author of Is Breast Best?
Taking on the Breastfeeding Experts and the New High Stakes of Motherhood
“This is an anthology whose time has come! The editors have garnered an extraordinary
number of international scholars to discuss motherhood from a broad range of perspectives,
more than one might ever have thought possible. Adrienne Rich’s pioneering distinction
between motherhood as institution and ideology versus motherhood as experience and identity
structures the volume’s chapters on diverse mothering/motherhood concerns across the globe.
The volume will guide Motherhood Studies for years to come.”
– E. Ann Kaplan, Distinguished Professor of English and Women’s
Gender, and Sexuality, Studies, Stony Brook University
THE ROUTLEDGE
COMPANION
TO MOTHERHOOD
Edited by Lynn O’Brien Hallstein, Andrea O’Reilly,
and Melinda Vandenbeld Giles
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Lynn O’Brien Hallstein,
Andrea O’Reilly, and Melinda Vandenbeld Giles;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Lynn O’Brien Hallstein, Andrea O’Reilly, and Melinda
Vandenbeld Giles to be identified as the authors of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-05241-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-16784-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Cover Art
Artist – Meaghan Brady Nelson, PhD
Title – Mothering
Size – 24 x 48 inches
Acrylic on gallery wrap
2019
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
Lynn O’Brien Hallstein, Andrea O’Reilly, and Melinda Vandenbeld Giles
SECTION I
Maternal theory 17
1 Maternal theory: patriarchal motherhood and empowered
mothering 19
Andrea O’Reilly
2 Feminist mothering 36
Fiona Joy Green
3 Matricentric feminism: a feminism for mothers 51
Andrea O’Reilly
SECTION II
Mothering through difference: hearing the voices
of marginalized mothers 61
4 Queering and querying motherhood 63
Shelley M. Park
5 Disabled mothers 77
Gloria Filax and Dena Taylor
v
Contents
6 Mothering while Black: strengths and vulnerabilities in a
sociopolitical racial context of structural inequality 89
Marva L. Lewis and Karen T. Craddock
7 Welfare mothers in the United States 103
Brianna Turgeon and Kaitlyn Root
8 Indigenous mothering: birthing the nation from resistance
to revolution 111
Jennifer Brant
9 Voluntarily childless women: a look at Western society
and the definition of motherhood 122
Emilie Lewis
SECTION III
Mothers, mothering, culture, and art 131
10 Mediated celebrity motherhood: representing the norms, values,
and practices promoted by and through celebrity moms 133
Lynn O’Brien Hallstein
11 Feminist art and motherhood: an overview 147
Myrel Chernick and Jennie Klein
12 Religions and mothers 156
Florence Pasche Guignard
13 Mothers and music 165
Martha Joy Rose
14 Matrifocal voices in literature 176
Elizabeth Podnieks
15 Motherhood memoirs 191
Heather Hewett
SECTION IV
Mothering and health 203
16 Beyond disordered brains and mother blame: critical issues
in autism and mothering 205
Patty Douglas and Estée Klar
vi
Contents
17 No fixed address: the everyday health challenges of mothers living
in an emergency homeless shelter 215
Rebecca Hughes
18 Midwifery in historical and contemporary perspective:
the collusion of race, class, and gender 226
Alicia D. Bonaparte
19 Mothers in prison: matricentric feminist criminology 236
Sinead O’Malley
20 Abused women’s mothering experiences: making the invisible visible 255
Caroline McDonald-Harker
SECTION V
Mothering, families, and domestic space 267
21 From home to house: neoliberalism, mothering, and
the de-domestication of the private sphere? 269
Melinda Vandenbeld Giles
22 Mothering or parenting? 274
Linda Rose Ennis
23 Homing in on domestic space: the boundaries and potential
of home-making 284
Jennifer L. Johnson
24 Configuring the mother-daughter dyad 294
Dorsía Smith Silva
25 Mothers and sons 308
Nicole L. Willey
SECTION VI
Mothering and work 329
26 Mothers and work: social reproduction and the labours of motherhood 331
Catherine Bryan
27 The lasting impacts of “The Opt Out Revolution”: disciplining
working mothers 343
Jennifer L. Borda
vii
Contents
28 Shifting gender norms and childcare in Canada 353
Brooke Richardson
29 Poor and working-class mothers 362
Patrice M. Buzzanell
SECTION VII
Mothering, economics, and globalization 371
30 Mothering, neoliberalism, and globalization 373
Melinda Vandenbeld Giles
31 Mothering and the economy 389
Margunn Bjørnholt
32 Transnational motherhood: conceptualizing ideas of care here and there 402
Gabrielle Oliveira
33 Mothering, urbanization, and Africa 414
Grace Adeniyi Ogunyankin
SECTION VIII
Mothering, governance, and politics 427
34 Formal governance of and by mothers: mothers, public policy, and law 429
Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich
35 Mothering and politics 442
Simone Bohn
36 The criminalization and incarceration of mothers in Canada
and the United States 451
Catherine Borshuk and Gordana Eljdupovic
37 The governance of mothers 462
Michelle Hughes Miller
SECTION IX
Mothering and activism 475
38 The politics of motherhood: maternal appeals in the public sphere 477
Sara Hayden
viii
Contents
39 Mothering and activism 486
Reena Shadaan
40 Reproductive justice as environmental justice: contexts,
coalitions, and cautions 496
Catalina M. de Onís
41 Motherhood and the struggle for reproductive justice 510
Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz
Contributors 520
Index 531
ix
