Motherhood, Mothering and Feminisms (EN)

One of the consequences of the patriarchal society is the submission of women based on the supposed inferiority on the basis of bodies and weakness of the mind, marked as the only possible destiny to be a mother.

We observe how the diversity that currently fits in feminism does not take mothers into account, and there is a lot of resistance to including their demands within the manifestos.

Woman mothers (even crossed by other identities) have seen how a fundamental aspect of their identity has been denied entry into the feminist movement, because identifying as mothers have not been considered as a dissident or transgressor, but a return to home and to the idea of patriarchal femininity. Therefore, the experience of motherhood has been blocked and out of any feminist debate, unless it was about the right not to be a mother (through the necessary fight for free abortion).

So, how the feminist perspective can appropriate motherhood and challenge the binary system? How to transform the institution of motherhood into mothering?

Our guest is Andrea O'Reilly, she is a writer on women's issues and is currently a Professor in the School of Women's Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. She’s the creator of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Motherhood, and she is also the author and editor of eighteen books on motherhood.

Recommendations:

Disobedient Mum, Esther Vivas

Matricentric Feminism, Andrea O’Reilly

The Big Lie, Tanya Selvaratnam