Contested Motherhood: Overview of Motherhood in Past, Present and the Future

Authors

  • Kanchan Biswas Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47505/IJRSS.2022.V3.8.13

Keywords:

Feminism, Motherhood, Mothering, Patriarchy, Social construction, Surrogacy, Reproductivity

Abstract

Motherhood is a social reality; the very social intuition existed in society since time immemorial. It is associated with women’s reproductivity and their socio-cultural life. It determines the woman’s status and their identity in the family and outer world. This paper attempts to understand motherhood as both a concept and a social institution by locating how motherhood is being constructed in the society as a social reality. Further, it discusses how feminists respond to the idea of motherhood. Finally, this paper examines the impact of reproductive technology on motherhood and how it is changing the structure and meaning, and idea of motherhood.

References

Badinter, E. (1981). Mother love: Myth and reality: Motherhood in modern history. New York: Macmillan.

Barbara, C.(1994). An Angle of Seeing: Motherhood in BuchiEmecheta’s Joys of Motherhood and Alice Walker’s Meridian. In Glenn, E. N., Chang, G., & Forcey, L. R. (Eds.). (2016). Mothering: Ideology, experience, and agency. Routledge.

Berger Peter, L., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge.

Bhattacharji, S. (1990). Motherhood in ancient India. Economic and Political Weekly, WS50-WS57.

Billings, K. (2004). Questioning motherhood: A sociological awakening. Students’ Critical Theories in Applied Settings, 91.

Braverman, L. (1989). Beyond the Myth of Motherhood. In McGoldrick, M., Anderson, C. M., & Walsh, F. (Eds.). (1991). Women in families: A framework for family therapy. WW Norton & Company.

Davis, S. (1996). Mothers in Law: Feminist Theory and the Legal Regulation of Motherhood. Edited by Martha Albertson Fineman and Isabel Karpin. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. 398p.

Donchin, A. (1986). The future of mothering: Reproductive technology and feminist theory. Hypatia, 1(2), 121-138.

Firestone,S. (1968).The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. New York : Quill

Ghadially, R. (1991). Women in India. New Delhi: Sage publications.

Glenn, E. N. (1994). Social constructions of mothering: A thematic overview. In Glenn, Evelyn Nakano, Grace Chang and Linda RennieForcey (ed.) Mothering: Ideology, Experience andAgency. New York: Rutledge

Gupta, J. A. (2000). New reproductive technologies, women's health and autonomy: Freedom or dependency. New Delhi: Sage Publications

Gupta, SayantaniDasandShamita Das Dasgupta (2010).Motherhood jeopardized: reproductive technologies in Indian communities” explained about the motherhood. In Wendy, Chavkin & Janemaree Maher (ed.) Globalisation of Motherhood: Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Biology and Care. New York: Routledge

Jhalani, M. K. (2010). Deconstructing Motherhood: Indian Cultural Narratives and Ideology, 1970's Onwards. SSS Publications.

Lazaro, R. (1986). Feminism and motherhood: O'Brien vs Beauvoir. Hypatia, 1(2), 87-102.

Mishra, Aditya: “Surrogacy in Indian Legal Context- a bliss or curse”:a research report, School of Law, Devi Ahilya Vishvavidyalaya (MP) retrieved from manupatrafast.com on 25-08-2021.

O'Reilly, A., Porter, M., & Short, P. (Eds.). (2005). Motherhood: Power and oppression. Canadian Scholars’ Press.

O'Reilly, A. (Ed.). (2012). From motherhood to mothering: The legacy of Adrienne Rich's Of woman born. SUNY Press.

Patel, T. (2006). Fertility behaviour: population and society in a Rajasthan village. OUP India.

Pateman, C. (1989). The disorder of women: Democracy, feminism, and political theory. Stanford University Press.

Poonacha, V. (1997). Rites de passage of matrescence and social construction of motherhood: Coorgs in South India. Economic and Political Weekly, 101-110.

Reger, J. (2001). Motherhood and the construction of feminist identities: Variations in a women's movement organization. Sociological Inquiry, 71(1), 85-110.

Rich, A. (1976). of woman born. new york: bantam book publisher.

Ridgeway, C. L., & Correll, S. J. (2004). Motherhood as a status characteristic. Journal of Social issues, 60(4), 683-700

Roberts, D. E. (1995). Motherhood and crime. Social Text, (42), 99-123.

Rothman, B. K. (1990). Recreating motherhood. In Beyond Baby M (pp. 9-27). Humana Press.

Shekhawat Surabhi: Arbitrability of cross border surrogacy disputes: An Indian Perspective, Chartered Accountant Practice Journal, August 2014, retrieved from manupatrafast.com on 25-08-2017.

Sinha, C. (2007). Images of motherhood: The Hindu code bill discourse. Economic and Political Weekly, 49-57.

Snitow, A. (1992). Feminism and motherhood: An American reading. Feminist Review, 40(1), 32-51.

Stanworth, M. (1987). Reproductive technologies: Gender, motherhood and medicine.

Stivens, M.(1998).Modernizing the Malay Mother. In Ram, Kalpana and Margaret Jolly (ed.) Maternities and Maternities: colonial and postcolonial experience in Asia and the Pacific.UK: Cambridge University Press.

Sudhir, K. (1981). Inner World: Psycho-analytic Study of Childwood and Society in India. New Delhi: OUP.

Wegar, K. (1997, January). In search of bad mothers: Social constructions of birth and adoptive motherhood. In Women's Studies International Forum (Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 77-86). Pergamon

Downloads

How to Cite

Kanchan Biswas. (2022). Contested Motherhood: Overview of Motherhood in Past, Present and the Future. International Journal of Research in Social Science and Humanities (IJRSS) ISSN:2582-6220, DOI: 10.47505/IJRSS, 3(8), 114–122. https://doi.org/10.47505/IJRSS.2022.V3.8.13

Issue

Section

Articles