Feminist Mothering

Cathleen Collins

Description

Feminist Mothering goes beyond critiques of patriarchal motherhood to locate and investigate feminist maternal practices as sites for women's empowerment and social change. The contributors see "feminist mothering" as practices of mothering that seek to challenge and change the norms of patriarchal motherhood that are limiting and oppressive to women. For many women, practicing feminist mothering offers a way to disrupt the transmission of sexist and patriarchal values from generation to generation. Contributors explore the ways in which women integrate activism, paid employment, nonsexist childrearing practices, and non-child-centered interests in their lives—and other caregivers into their children's lives—in order to challenge existing societal inequality and create new egalitarian possibilities for women, men, and families.
Acknowledgments
Andrea O’Reilly

Introduction
Andrea O’Reilly

I. MOTHERHOOD

1. Professional Women, Timing, and Reproductive Strategies
Michele Y. Pridmore-Brown

2. “No, I’m Not Catholic, and Yes, They’re All Mine:” The Narratives of Feminist Mothering on the Tenure Track
Kecia Driver McBride

3. Feminism, Motherhood, and Possibilities in the Writing of Bronwen Wallace
Shelley Martin

II. FAMILY

4. Planned Parenthood: The Construction of Motherhood in Lesbian Mother Advice Books
Kristin G. Esterberg

5. The Voice of the Maternal in Louise Erdrich’s Fiction and Memoirs
Aimee E. Berger

6. African American Mothers: Victimized, Vilified, and Valorized
Shirley A. Hill

7. Mothering as Relational Consciousness
Amber E. Kinser

III. CHILDREARING

8. Feminist Family Values: Parenting in Third Wave Feminism and Empowering All Family Members
Colleen Mack-Canty and Sue Marie Wright

9. Feminist Motherline: Embodied Knowledge/s of Feminist Mothering
Fiona Joy Green

10. (Un)usual Suspects: Mothers, Masculinities, Monstrosities
Sarah Trimble

11. “That Is What Feminism Is—The Acting and Living and Not Just the Told”: Modeling and Mentoring Feminism
Andrea O’Reilly

IV. ACTIVISM

12. Rocking the Boat: Feminism and the Ideological Grounding of the Twenty-First Century Mothers’ Movement
Judith Stadtman Tucker

13. Women Staging Coups through Mothering: Depictions in Hispanic Contemporary Literature
Gisela Norat

14. Maternal Activism: How Feminist Is It?
Janice Nathanson

15. Balancing Act: Discourses of Feminism, Motherhood and Activism
Pegeen Reichert Powell

List of Contributors
Index

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 09 octobre 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791477786
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

feminist mothering

editedby Andrea O’Reilly

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F E M I N I S T M O T H E R I N G

SUNY SERIES IN F EMINIST C RITICISM AND T HEORY

Michelle A. Masse, editor

F E M I N I S T

M O T H E R I N G

Edited by A N D R E A O ’ R E I L LY

S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K P R E S S

Published by S TATE U NIVERSITY OF N EW Y ORK P RESS A LBANY

© 2008 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoeverwithoutwrittenpermission.Nopartofthisbookmaybe stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Fran Keneston

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Feminist mothering / edited by Andrea O’Reilly. p. cm. — (SUNY series in feminist criticism and theory) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-7914-7557-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Motherhood. 2. Feminism. 3. Parenting. I. O’Reilly, Andrea, 1961–

HQ759.F367 2008 306.874'301—dc22

2008003112

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Contents

A CKNOWLEDGMENTS Andrea O’Reilly

I NTRODUCTION Andrea O’Reilly

I . M O T H E R H O O D

Professional Women, Timing, and Reproductive Strategies Michele Pridmore-Brown

“No, I’m Not Catholic, and Yes, They’re All Mine:” The Narratives of Feminist Mothering on the Tenure Track Kecia Driver McBride

Feminism, Motherhood, and Possibilities in the Writing of Bronwen Wallace Shelley Martin

I I . F A M I LY

Planned Parenthood: The Construction of Motherhood in Lesbian Mother Advice Books Kristin G. Esterberg

The Voice of the Maternal in Louise Erdrich’s Fiction and Memoirs Aimee E. Berger

African American Mothers: Victimized, Vilified, and Valorized Shirley A. Hill

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T HIRTEEN

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CONTENTS

Mothering as Relational Consciousness Amber E. Kinser

I I I . C H I L D R E A R I N G

Feminist Family Values: Parenting in Third Wave Feminism and Empowering All Family Members Colleen Mack-Canty and Sue Marie Wright

Feminist Motherline: Embodied Knowledge/s of Feminist Mothering Fiona Joy Green

(Un)usual Suspects: Mothers, Masculinities, Monstrosities Sarah Trimble

“That Is What Feminism Is—The Acting and Living and Not Just the Told”: Modeling and Mentoring Feminism Andrea O’Reilly

I V. A C T I V I S M

Rocking the Boat: Feminism and the Ideological Grounding of the Twenty-First Century Mothers’ Movement Judith Stadtman Tucker

Women Staging Coups through Mothering: Depictions in Hispanic Contemporary Literature Gisela Norat

Maternal Activism: How Feminist Is It? Janice Nathanson

Balancing Act: Discourses of Feminism, Motherhood, and Activism Pegeen Reichert Powell

L IST OF C ONTRIBUTORS

I NDEX

123

143

161

177

191

205

219

243

257

273

277

Acknowledgments

ANDREA O’REILLY

I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS my deepest thanks to the following people who helped bring this book to life. Special thanks are due to my research assis- tants Roni Hoffman and Sarah Trimble and to my proofreader Randy Chase. I am grateful to Larin McLaughlin for her continued faith in this manuscript and to Laurie Searl for her skill in turning it into a book. Thank you also to the members of theAssociation for Research on Mothering: my thinking on mothering, as always, was enriched and sustained by this splen- did community of scholars. My deepest gratitude goes to the contributors of this volume who sustained and inspired me in their commitment to and belief in the possibility and power of feminist mothering. Special thanks to Renée Knapp, my closest friend and colleague atARMwho commiserates and comforts when I need it the most. Finally, my deepest appreciation and love to Jesse, Erin, and Casey: thank you for becoming the feminist children I had longed for and dreamed of.

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