Attempts to narrate the experience of the mother consistently and compulsively collapse into her function, always idealized and overinvested. These massive social projections onto the mother quickly ...become evidence of her multitude of failures, meanwhile leaving her experience forever emptied of any possible substantive point of interest.
Este artículo tiene como objetivo visibilizar el discurso y la presencia social de aquellas mujeres que a lo largo de sus vidas han ido tomando la decisión de no convertirse en madres. Para ello, ...hemos elaborado una investigación en la que, metodológicamente, ha sido imprescindible recurrir al análisis de diversas entrevistas a mujeres de edades comprendidas entre los 25 y 55 años. De modo que, a través de sus testimonios, claves a la hora de comprender las presiones sociales, exigencias y estigmas a los que estas mujeres se enfrentan culturalmente por representar la hostilidad de un deseo considerado socialmente contrahegemónico, observamos cómo la identidad femenina sigue construyéndose en torno a una visión ontológica sobre la maternidad. Esto implica que el discurso antimaternal carezca prácticamente de representaciones y espacios que visibilicen su necesaria presencia y existencia en la sociedad actual. Por ello, la finalidad de este artículo reside en dar a conocer que la no-maternidad representa un deseo y una práctica tan loable como otra cualquiera; y que, a su vez, aporta un discurso contrahegemónico sobre la identidad femenina que cuestiona los mandatos de género imperantes.
El artículo busca analizar la construcción social y racial de los modelos maternos de la buena y de la mala madre en el Perú contemporáneo (siglos XIX y XX). El estudio se realiza en una perspectiva ...metodológica feminista decolonial aplicada a los estudios de historia movilizando fuentes de diversa índole que van de los archivos médicos, la prensa, la documentación administrativa hasta los trabajos antropológicos. Los resultados de esta investigación muestran cómo el modelo occidental de la buena madre sirvió para esencializar los roles sociales de género y legitimar la hegemonía del grupo de los descendientes de los criollos y de la población blanca mestiza. Si bien todas las mujeres fueron consideradas como inferiores a los varones y destinadas a la maternidad, solo ciertas mujeres –blancas y de clases acomodadas– heredaron la calidad de “matronas” y de “madres patriotas”. Las demás, indígenas, afro y mestizas, en cambio, aparecieron en mayor o menor grado como madres de segunda categoría, a las que había que formar, controlar y en algunos casos hasta limitar su reproducción. La originalidad de esta contribución radica en el análisis de la maternidad como espacio de colonialidad, es decir, como un entramado de relaciones de poder de orden patriarcal, racial y de clase que clasifica y jerarquiza a las mujeres peruanas lo que constituye un rasgo social que se mantiene hasta hoy.
Ain't no trust Levine, Judith A
2013., 20130615, 2013, 2013-06-15
eBook
Ain’t No Trust explores issues of trust and distrust among low-income women in the U.S.—at work, around childcare, in their relationships, and with caseworkers—and presents richly detailed evidence ...from in-depth interviews about our welfare system and why it’s failing the very people it is designed to help. By comparing low-income mothers’ experiences before and after welfare reform, Judith A. Levine probes women’s struggles to gain or keep jobs while they simultaneously care for their children, often as single mothers. By offering a new way to understand how structural factors impact the daily experiences of poor women, Ain’t No Trust highlights the pervasiveness of distrust in their lives, uncovering its hidden sources and documenting its most corrosive and paralyzing effects. Levine’s critique and conclusions hold powerful implications for scholars and policymakers alike.
Susan Markens takes on one of the hottest issues on the fertility front—surrogate motherhood—in a book that illuminates the culture wars that have erupted over new reproductive technologies in the ...United States. In an innovative analysis of legislative responses to surrogacy in the bellwether states of New York and California, Markens explores how discourses about gender, family, race, genetics, rights, and choice have shaped policies aimed at this issue. She examines the views of key players, including legislators, women's organizations, religious groups, the media, and others. In a study that finds surprising ideological agreement among those with opposing views of surrogate motherhood, Markens challenges common assumptions about our responses to reproductive technologies and at the same time offers a fascinating picture of how reproductive politics shape social policy.
COVID‐19 and the gender gap in work hours Collins, Caitlyn; Landivar, Liana Christin; Ruppanner, Leah ...
Gender, work, and organization,
January 2021, Volume:
28, Issue:
S1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
School and day care closures due to the COVID‐19 pandemic have increased caregiving responsibilities for working parents. As a result, many have changed their work hours to meet these growing ...demands. In this study, we use panel data from the US Current Population Survey to examine changes in mothers’ and fathers’ work hours from February through April 2020, the period of time prior to the widespread COVID‐19 outbreak in the United States and through its first peak. Using person‐level fixed effects models, we find that mothers with young children have reduced their work hours four to five times more than fathers. Consequently, the gender gap in work hours has grown by 20–50 per cent. These findings indicate yet another negative consequence of the COVID‐19 pandemic, highlighting the challenges it poses to women’s work hours and employment.
Objective
To systematically review findings of the impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment on mothers' psychological well‐being, roles, and identity and to explore the psychosocial factors that ...contribute to mothers' psychological well‐being.
Methods
Six databases were searched for research articles and theses exploring the association between the impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment on mothers' psychological well‐being, identity, and role, and the psychosocial factors contributing to mothers' psychological distress regardless of their cancer type and stage. The Mixed‐Method Appraisal Bias Tool was used to assess the selected studies' methodological quality.
Results
A total of 30 qualitative, quantitative, and mixed‐method studies were deemed eligible for inclusion. Most studies reported that mothers experienced significant psychological distress, changes to or loss of parenting efficacy, maternal identity, and role. Psychosocial factors that contributed to mothers' distress included mothers' young age, presence of metastases, lower parenting efficacy, fear of cancer recurrence, higher illness intrusiveness, and lack of appropriate support. Four main themes emerged from the qualitative studies: psychological impact of cancer on mothers, changes in maternal identity and role, relationship changes and concerns for their children, and meaning‐making in cancer experience.
Conclusions
Changes in mothers' psychological well‐being, role, and identity occurred across cancer diagnoses, treatment, and recovery trajectories. The evidence suggests that mothers may benefit from continued and tailored psychosocial support to cope with these challenges, even after treatment is completed. Further studies with improved methodological quality are needed to explore these issues in depth.
The COVID‐19 pandemic has dramatically affected employment, particularly for mothers. Many believe that the loss of childcare and homeschooling requirements are key contributors to this trend, but ...previous work has been unable to test these hypotheses due to data limitations. This study uses novel data from 989 partnered, US parents to empirically examine whether the loss of childcare and new homeschooling demands are associated with employment outcomes early in the pandemic. We also consider whether the division of childcare prior to the pandemic is associated with parents' employment. For parents with young children, the loss of full‐time childcare was associated with an increased risk of unemployment for mothers but not fathers. Yet, father involvement in childcare substantially buffered against negative employment outcomes for mothers of young children. For parents with school‐age children, participation in homeschooling was associated with adverse employment outcomes for mothers but not fathers. Overall, this study provides empirical support for the current discourse on gender differences in employment during the pandemic and also highlights the role fathers can play in buffering against reduced labor force participation among mothers.
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