While knowledge about contraception was systematically suppressed, knowledge of abortion techniques that would interfere with a pregnancy going to term were also increasingly subject to control in the nineteenth century. Although before 1800 it was a common-law offence to abort a foetus after the stage of quickening or ensoulment (after approximately eighty days) it appears […]

To begin any deconstruction of motherhood we have to go behind the mother-child relationship, which is where much feminist work starts, in order to focus on the supposedly natural chain of events that gives rise to motherhood in the first place. Standing behind motherhood, in the shadows so to speak, is a chain of events […]

Carol Smart Motherhood is not a natural condition. It is an institution that presents itself as a natural outcome of biologically given gender differences, as a natural consequence of (hetero) sexual activity, and as a natural manifestation of an innate female characteristic, namely the maternal instinct. The existence of an institution of motherhood, as opposed […]

The thesis of the degradation of mothering agues that motherhood is an increasingly devalued activity within capitalism and patriarchy. The continuous process of degradation is loosely defined around three main features: 1 Work has been intensified by the creation of a multitude of new tasks and raised standards of child care. 2 Emphasis has shifted […]

The low status of mothers in the labour market has therefore been closely related to the limitations of social provisions such as child care. How has child-care provision changed during the twentieth century? Proponents of the degradation-of-mothering thesis have often argued that improvements that have facilitated child care—from antibiotics to plumbing—have been offset by rising […]

Full-time motherhood implies that a woman is not required to work for pay, that someone—usually a man or sometimes the state—will provide for her and her child or children. It can also imply that she is barred—by legal means or ideologies—from taking on employment. Alternatively, it can signify that the woman will be doubly burdened […]

Historically, we see non-linear shifts of control and autonomy in motherhood and mothering. Despite many arguments about the degradation of mothering, it does not seem that women’s control of reproduction and sexuality is today less than it was at the turn of the century. There is a need for more adequate assessments of control and […]

In contrast to the views of a continuing degradation of mothering, discussed in the previous section, an examination of mothering in this century shows how diverse the history of motherhood and mothering has been for different groups of women, particularly the married and the unmarried, the middle class and the working class. By concentrating on […]

Elizabeth Bortolaia Silva The power of women in shaping human beings is central to nearly all conceptions of mothering. In the Judaeo-Christian conception, the woman alone devotedly, unselfishly and wisely gives herself to the task of reproducing new generations. Regardless of her own personal needs, socio-economic conditions or husband/partner, the mother must always subject herself […]

Elizabeth Bortolaia Silva Mothering has long occupied a central place in debates about women’s positions in society. Feminist perspectives have asserted that motherhood and mothering are not natural for women but that they are historically, culturally and socially constructed. Building on these assumptions, this volume considers recent debates on lone motherhood by focusing on the […]