Regretting Motherhood

A Study

Author: Orna Donath
ISBN: 9781623171377

Women who opt not to be mothers are frequently warned that they will regret their decision later in life, yet we rarely talk about the possibility that the opposite might also be true-that a woman who becomes a mother might regret it. Sociologist Orna Donath dispels the silence around this profoundly taboo subject in a powerful work that draws from her years of research interviewing women who wish they had never become mothers.Donath treats regret as a feminist issue- as regret marks the road not taken, we need to consider whether alternative paths for women may currently be blocked off. Donath asks that we pay attention to what is forbidden by our contemporary rules governing motherhood, time, and emotion, including the cultural assumption that motherhood is a "natural" role for women-for the sake of all women, not just those who regret becoming mothers. Donath finds that the women in her study became mothers for a wide variety of reasons- some did so to avoid divorce, exclusion from

Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Publish Date: 2017

Subjects: Family & Relationships / Parenting / Motherhood, Social Science / Feminism & Feminist Theory, Social Science / Sociology / Marriage & Family

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: Parenting)