1. Motherhood and Fatherhood
Week 15 Sociology of Human Reproduction

2. Recap Considered the family as a social construction
Look at different ways to conceptualise the family
Considered shifting debates on family values

3. Outline Consider the relationship between womanhood and motherhood
Examine position of childfree women or non-resident mothers
Consider the meaning of fatherhood

4. Motherhood Motherhood is not a natural condition
A socially constructed institution which appears to be natural
Historical and cultural
differences alert us to its
changing nature

5. Pathways to Motherhood?
Smart sets out the path to motherhood:
Sexual activity – pregnancy – birth – mothering – motherhood
She argues that rather than a natural chain, each stages specific choices are made within a specific social context
Sexual activity need not involve penetration, pregnancy need not lead to birth

6. Pathways to Motherhood
Smart also argues that giving birth did not always lead to motherhood.
Nannies and wet nurses
Baby farming and abandonment
Infanticide (First outlawed in England 1623)
Birth was not presumed to trigger maternal feelings
Laws and guidance would not be necessary if mothering was ‘natural’

7. Motherhood During 19th Century motherhood emerged as a legal category
Before only fathers existed in law
Early feminists fought to get mothers recognised
Campaigns to allow women to keep their children following divorce or separation
Philanthropists and others began
to develop and impose standards
for working-class mothers

8. Motherhood Motherhood thus emerged as an ideology
Linked to ideas about good child-rearing practices
Normative practices were
resisted but became idealised

9. To what extent to agree that the need for ‘rules’ for motherhood indicate that it is not a natural condition?

10. Womanhood and Motherhood
Women’s ability to reproduce is key to understanding gender divisions
Women are generally expected to become mothers
Girls play with baby dolls
‘Suitable’ careers are linked to caring role
Women’s behaviour is judged in relation to motherhood
Particularly sexuality

11. Womanhood and Motherhood
Women are routinely discriminated at work on the basis of motherhood
In case they become mothers
When they are mothers
Maternity benefits guaranteed by law and separate from sick leave
Different from abortion

12. Womanhood and Motherhood
Women’s lives follow an expected pattern
Presumption of heterosexuality
Presumption of marriage (or similar) relationship
Presumption lead to child/children

13. Womanhood and Motherhood
But motherhood also restricted by ideas of ‘good motherhood’
Disapproval of teenage pregnancy
Disapproval of older mothers
Disapproval of working mothers
Disapproval of lesbian mothers
So good motherhood is both normalised and restricted simultaneously

14. To what extend to you think women are always judged in relation to motherhood or potential motherhood?

15. Childfree women
The expectation of motherhood means that childfree women are understood as an anomaly
Often asked to explain their decision or assumption of infertility
Assumption of selfishness, misplaced directions or mental illness

16. Mothers who leave
Women who leave their children are considered the most problematic category
Considered even more deviant
and unnatural than women
who are childfree
Judged more harshly than
fathers who leave

17. Mothers who leave
The sanctions against women are related to the construction of motherhood as natural
They also clearly show how a presumed rejection of motherhood means that women are not proper women
These discourses help to produce what motherhood is

18. Fatherhood Just like motherhood, fatherhood has shifted over time
Traditionally fathers expected to provide for their families
Good father = breadwinner
Not obliged to be actively
involved in child-raising
Except in the case of discipline

19. Fatherhood Late 20th, role requirement shifted to be more involved
Fathers expected to engage with their children
Emphasis often on positive interaction
Routine childrearing tasks can be shared, but less important

20. Fatherhood
Material Goods
Positive Role model

21. Fathers who leave
Fathers who leave are also considered to be ‘deviant’
In 1980s problem defined primarily as financial
Child Support Act 1991
As involved parenting became important, debate shifted towards care deficit

22. Fatherhood Organisation
The Child Support Act was the catalyst towards the collective organisation of fathers
Often argue that Courts favour mothers over fathers
Not supported in outcome of cases
Women are more likely to be resident parent, but were primary carer beforehand
Non-resident parent granted access in approx 94% cases
Violent men routinely given access to their children

23. Summary Examined how motherhood and fatherhood has changed over time
Looked at interrelationship between motherhood and womanhood
Looked at perceptions of fathers and mothers who do not conform

24. Next week Build on ideas of good motherhood
Examine pregnancy and breastfeeding
Consider normative and embodied experiences