Twenty-first Century Motherhood: Experience, Identity, Policy, Agency

by Andrea O'Reilly (Editor)

Overview

A pioneer of modern motherhood studies, Andrea O'Reilly explores motherhood's current representation and practice, considering developments that were unimaginable decades ago: the Internet, interracial surrogacy, raising transchildren, male mothering, intensive mothering, queer parenting, the applications of new biotechnologies, and mothering in the post-9/11 era. Her work pulls together a range of disciplines and themes in motherhood studies. She confronts the effects of globalization, HIV/AIDS, welfare reform, politicians as mothers, third wave feminism, and the evolving motherhood movement, and she incorporates Chicana, African-American, Canadian, Muslim, queer, low-income, trans, and lesbian perspectives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231149679
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	09/23/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Andrea O'Reilly is associate professor in the School of Women's Studies at York University and the editor or coeditor of more than fourteen books on motherhood. She is the author of Toni Morrison and Motherhood: A Politics of the Heart and Rocking the Cradle: Thoughts on Motherhood, Feminism, and the Possibility of Empowered Mothering. She is also the founder and director of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, formerly the Association for Research on Mothering and the founder and editor in chief of the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, formerly the Journal of the Association for Research and Mothering.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction Andrea O'Reilly 1

Part I Experience 21

1 Chicana Mothering in the Twenty-first Century: Challenging Stereotypes and Transmitting Culture Jessica M. Vasquez 23

2 Muslim Motherhood: Traditions in Changing Contexts Gail Murphy-Geiss 40

3 Mothering in Fear: How Living in an Insecure-Feeling World Affects Parenting Ana Villalobos 57

4 Mother-Talk: Conversations with Mothers of Female-to-Male Transgender Children Sarah F. Pearlman 72

5 Queer Parenting in the New Millennium: Resisting Normal Rachel Epstein 90

6 Contemporary Mothering Practices in the Context of HIV and AIDS: A South African Case Thenjiwe Magwaza 105

Part II Identity 119

7 Ambivalence of the Motherhood Experience Ivana Brown 121

8 Supermothers on Film: or, Maternal Melodrama in the Twenty-first Century Adrienne McCormick 140

9 Juno or Just Another Girl? Young Breeders and a New Century of Racial Politics of Motherhood Mary Thompson 158

10 Taking Off the Maternal Lens: Engaging with Sara Ruddick on Men and Mothering Andrea Doucet 170

11 Reproducing Possibilities: Androgenesis and Mothering Human Identity Deirdre M. Condit 181

Part III Policy 197

12 Mothers of the Global Welfare State: How Neoliberal Globalization Affects Working Mothers in Sweden and Canada Honor Brabazon 199

13 The Erosion of College Access for Low-Income Mothers A. Fiona Pearson 216

14 Academic Life Balance for Mothers: Pipeline or Pipe Dream? Michele L. Vancour William M. Sherman 234

15 Exclusive Breastfeeding and Work Policies in Eldoret, Kenya Violet Naanyu 247

16 Brown Bodies, White Eggs: The Politics of Cross-racial Gestational Surrogacy Laura Harrison 261

17 What Will Become of Us? New Biotechnologies and the Need for Maternal Leadership Enola G. Aird 276

Part IV Agency 291

18 From "Choice" to Change: Rewriting the Script of Motherhood as Maternal Activism Judith Stadtman Tucker 293

19 The Mothers' Movement: The Challenges of Coalition Building in the Twenty-first Century Patrice DiQuinzio 310

20 Political Labeling of Mothers: An Obstacle to Equality in Politics Marsha Marotta 324

21 Racially Conscious Mothering in the "Colorblind" Century: Implications for African American Motherwork Camille Wilson Cooper 338

22 It Takes a (Virtual) Village: Mothering on the Internet May Friedman 352

23 Outlaw(ing) Motherhood: A Theory and Politic of Maternal Empowerment for the Twenty-first Century Andrea O'Reilly 366

Contributors 381

Index 387

What People are Saying About This

Heather Hewett

Andrea O'Reilly's coverage is comprehensive. Her book reflects current trends in the field, particularly the examination of reproductive technologies and the Internet and the implications for motherhood and mothering.

— Heather Hewett, State University of New York, New Paltz, writer and editor of the Global Mama column for Girl with Pen (www.girlwpen.com)

Amber Kinser

Twenty-first-century mothering is confronted by historically significant variables that warrant special attention in motherhood studies, as they profoundly impact maternal agency, identity, policy, and experience. Maternal theorizing must take into account the ways in which mothers and mothering are uniquely situated in the twenty-first century. Andrea O'Reilly offers a scholarly, accessible, and effective interdisciplinary collection that attends to these truths and nuances the study of mothering today.

— Amber Kinser, author of Motherhood and Feminism