Editors:
- Foregrounds the experiences, emotions and perspectives of mothers in order to better understand how Australian motherhood has developed historically and contemporaneously
- Utilises a feminist perspective to understand motherhood while not limiting the analysis to an assumption that mothers must be freed of motherhood
- Breaks new ground in moving the debate past outdated assumptions that motherhood is incompatible with career ambition, self-fulfilment and feminism
Buy it now
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.
Table of contents (22 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Introducing and Analysing Maternal Studies
-
Front Matter
-
-
Constructing Mothers as Citizens, Workers and Wives
-
Front Matter
-
-
Remembering Families: Mothers, Fathers and Children
-
Front Matter
-
-
The History and Politics of Childbirth and Breastfeeding
-
Front Matter
-
-
Becoming a Mother: Identity, Emotion and Time Use
-
Front Matter
-
About this book
This collection defines the field of maternal studies in Australia for the first time. Leading motherhood researchers explore how mothering has evolved across Australian history as well as the joys and challenges of being a mother today. The contributors cover pregnancy, birth, relationships, childcare, domestic violence, time use, work, welfare, policy and psychology, from a diverse range of maternal perspectives. Utilising a matricentric feminist framework, Australian Mothering foregrounds the experiences, emotions and perspectives of mothers to better understand how Australian motherhood has developed historically and contemporaneously. Drawing upon their combined sociological and historical expertise, Bueskens and Pascoe Leahy have carefully curated a collection that presents compelling research on past and present perspectives on maternity in Australia, which will be relevant to researchers, advocates and policy makers interested in the changing role of mothers in Australian society.
Reviews
“This volume offers a kaleidoscope of case studies and debates that speak to the heart of mothering in Australia’s past and present. Taken together, the essays in Australian Mothering simultaneously describe a rich field of research dating to the 1960s and illustrate how much remains to be done. … Australian Mothering’s essays are beautifully – often creatively – expressed. The volume is testament to the quality of both Maternal Studies scholarship and its editors’ curation.” (Charlotte Greenhalgh, Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 53, June, 2022)
“An incisive and compelling study of Australian motherhood that discerningly examines it’s trajectories from Federation to contemporary times and perceptively explores its many permutations across diverse themes and perspectives. The collection meticulously takes up and engages with the key theories and topics in motherhood studies and astutely employs them to curate a rich compendium of Australian motherhood. The volume will guide Australian Motherhood Studies for years to come.” —Andrea O’Reilly, York University, Canada"A wonderfully rich and important collection of scholarly perspectives on the experiences and meanings of motherhood in the Australian context. Petra Bueskens and Carla Pascoe Leahy have significantly broadened the field of maternal studies, insisting that ’the maternal’ is a political, historical and social term, one that tells us as much about colonial and domestic violence, fatherhood, migration, citizenship and the state, as it does about motherhood, care, and the female body. Essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of motherhood." —Lisa Baraitser, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
Editors and Affiliations
-
University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
Carla Pascoe Leahy, Petra Bueskens
About the editors
Carla Pascoe Leahy is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia and an Honorary Associate at Museums Victoria.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Australian Mothering
Book Subtitle: Historical and Sociological Perspectives
Editors: Carla Pascoe Leahy, Petra Bueskens
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20267-5
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-20266-8Published: 29 January 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-20269-9Published: 26 August 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-20267-5Published: 28 January 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 498
Number of Illustrations: 9 b/w illustrations
Topics: Australasian History, Gender Studies, Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging, Childhood, Adolescence and Society