The Politics of Motherhood

Activist Voices from Left to Right

Author: Alexis Jetter
Secondary Author: Annelise Orleck
ISBN: 9780874517804

Perhaps the most deeply rooted stereotype of motherhood, editor Annelise Orleck writes, is "the notion that mothers are by definition apolitical, isolated with their children in a world of pure emotion, far removed from the welter of politics and social struggle." This collection of essays, interviews, and personal narratives challenges the image of a mutually absorbed madonna and child and explodes the myth that bearing and raising children alters a woman's consciousness in some fundamentally conservative way, silencing her voice and disarming her rebellion. Instead, these contributors demonstrate that motherhood often redefines and revitalizes a woman's political consciousness. From Love Canal to the Kenyan countryside, from a public housing project in Las Vegas to a plaza in Buenos Aires, from a Minnesota Indian reservation to the Gaza Strip, the radicalizing events differ but the effects are the same. While most mothers from disparate classes, races, nationalities, cultures, and p

Publisher: UPNE
Publish Date: 1997

Subjects: Social Science / Women's Studies

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