Unbecoming Mothers: The Social Production of Maternal Absence

by Gustafson; Diana

• ISBN13: 9780789024534
• ISBN10: 0789024535
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2005-05-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Learn the who,” what,” and why” of unbecoming a mother In a society where becoming a mother is naturalized, unbecoming” a mother--the process of coming to live apart from biological children--is regarded as unnatural, improper, or even contemptible. Few mothers are more stigmatized than those who are perceived as having given up, surrendered, or abandoned their birth children. Unbecoming Mothers: The Social Production of Maternal Absence examines this phenomenon within the social and historical context of parenting in Canada, Australia, Britain, and the United States, with critical observations from social workers, policymakers, and historians. This unique book offers insights from the perspectives of children on the outside looking in and the lived experiences of women on the inside looking out. Unbecoming Mothers: The Social Production of Maternal Absence explores how gender, race, class, and other social agents affect the ways women negotiate their lives apart from their children and how they attempt to recreate their identities and family structures. An interdisciplinary, international collection of academics, community workers, and mothers draws upon sources as diverse as archival records, a therapist's interview, a dance script, and the class presentation of a student to offer refreshing insights on maternal absence that are innovative, accessible, and inspiring. Unbecoming Mothers examines five assumptions about maternal absence and the families that emerge from that absence: the focus on parenting as highly gendered caring work done by women the idea that women share the same experience of unbecoming mothers and share the same circumstances and background the perception of maternal absence as a recent phenomenon the notion that women who want to manage their mother-work will make choices to overcome life's obstacles the Western concept of womanhood being achieved through motherhood and the unrealistic ideal of the good mother” Unbecoming Mothers: The Social Production of Maternal Absence is a rich, multidisciplinary resource for academics working in women's studies, psychology, sociology, history, and any health-related fields, and for policymakers, social workers, and other community workers.

Table of Contents

About the Editor	xi
Contributors	xiii
Foreword	xvii
Sharon Abbey
Acknowledgments	xix
Chapter 1. Framing the Discussion	1	(22)
Diana L. Gustafson
PART I: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT
Chapter 2. The Social Construction of Maternal Absence	23	(28)
Diana L. Gustafson
The Good Mother/Bad Mother Binary	24	(6)
The Binary of Becoming/Unbecoming Mothers	30	(10)
Examining Acts of Resistance	40	(4)
Concluding Thoughts	44	(7)
Chapter 3. Abject Mothers: Women Separated from Their Babies Lost to Adoption	51	(22)
Patricia D. Farrar
Adoption and Relinquishment	52	(2)
Reading Kristeva	54	(2)
Adoption As Abjection: The Unnameable, the Unspeakable	56	(14)
Reflecting on Abjection	70	(3)
Chapter 4. Clarifying Choice: Identity, Trauma, and Motherhood	73	(28)
Linda L. Anderson
Clarifying Choice: Cynthia's Story	75	(15)
Reflections on Identity, Motherhood, and Trauma	90	(11)
Chapter 5. Sandy's Story: Re-Storying the Self	101	(16)
Lekkie Hopkins
Sandy's Seminar Presentation	103	(3)
Finding a Voice: Giving Life to Her Story, and a Story to Her Life	106	(6)
Reflections on the Re-Storying Process	112	(5)
Gentle Even With Garbage	117	(6)
Si Transken
PART II: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
Chapter 6. "Forsaking Their Children": Distance, Community, and Unbecoming Quaker Mothers, 1650-1700	123	(18)
Susanna Calkins
Early Modern Motherhood	125	(2)
The Paradox of Quaker Motherhood	127	(5)
The Paradox Resolved: Quaker Woman As Communal Mother	132	(5)
Conclusion	137	(4)
Chapter 7. Unnatural Mothers: Lone Mothers and the Practice of Child Rescue, 1901-1930	141	(26)
Robert Adamoski
Chapter 8. Missing Mothers in a Mother-Centered World: Adolescent Girls Growing Up in Kinship Care	167	(18)
Deborah Connolly Youngblood
Missing Mothers	170	(3)
The Adolescent Code of Silence	173	(3)
Mothers Who Are Missed	176	(3)
Naturalizing Social Policy	179	(2)
Conclusion	181	(4)
Chapter 9. Looking Promising: Contradictions and Challenges for Young Mothers in Care	185	(26)
Marilyn Callahan
Susan Strega
Deborah Rutman
Lena Dominelli
The Research Methodology	187	(1)
The Findings: Looking Promising	188	(1)
Looking Promising: What Young Women Thought	189	(4)
Looking Promising: What Social Workers Thought	193	(4)
Looking Promising: A Beginning Theory	197	(2)
Maintaining the Cycle: Policy Observations	199	(3)
Contradictions and Obstacles in Breaking the Cycle	202	(9)
PART III: COMBINING SITUATED KNOWLEDGES OF MATERNAL ABSENCE
Chapter 10. Leaving to Grow/Inspiration to Grow/ Leaving Inspiration	211	(16)
Gill Wright Miller
Prologue	212	(3)
Leaving Inspiration: The Act of Being Contained by the Expectations of Mothering	215	(2)
Inspiration to Grow: The Act of Using Dance-Making As a Tool for Sharing	217	(5)
Leaving to Grow: The Act of Differentiating Mothering from Being a Mother	222	(4)
Epilogue	226	(1)
Chapter 11. Perspectives of Substance-Using Women and Human Service Practitioners: Reflections from the Margins	227	(24)
Deborah Rutman
Audrey Lundquist
Barbara Field
Marilyn Callahan
Suzanne Jackson
Substance Use, Pregnancy, and Mothering	227	(4)
Research Process	231	(1)
Findings	232	(11)
Discussion: Directions from Women and Human Service Practitioners	243	(8)
Index	251