Feminist Mothering

Essays explore a wide range of contemporary feminist mothering practices.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.Andrea O'Reilly is Associate Professor in the School of Women's Studies at York University and Director of the Association for Research on Mothering. She is the author and editor of many books on mothering, including From Motherhood to Mothering: The Legacy of Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born and Toni Morrison and Motherhood: A Politics of the Heart, both also published by SUNY Press.