Lesbian families with children are greater in number and more visible today than ever before. In fact, social scientists have suggested that we may be in the midst of a lesbian "baby boom". Canada's Census figures support this assertion. Between 2001 and 2006 there was a forty-seven per cent increase in households made up of two lesbian mothers and their children. This dissertation addresses the legal issues raised by lesbian motherhood, focusing primarily on legal parentage. It considers the terms upon which parental recognition has been achieved thus far, and evaluates the efficacy of a reform agenda focused exclusively on gaining access to the existing legal framework. To explore the legal and social dynamics of planned lesbian families, interviews were conducted with forty-nine lesbian mothers living in British Columbia and Alberta who conceived using assisted reproduction. Mothers were asked about the structure of their families, how they defined terms such as "parent" and "family", the extent to which they had engaged with law, and their recommendations for law reform. The interviews revealed that lesbian mothers define family and parenthood broadly, emphasizing intention and caregiving over a purely biological model of kinship. All of the mothers defined a "parent" as someone who intends to parent and, once a child is born, performs that intention through caregiving. Parental status was thus not limited to those who shared a biological relationship with a child, or even to two individuals. The research suggests that lesbian mothers have little interest in being subsumed into the existing legal framework which tends to prioritize dyadic and biological parenting. In fact, only a tiny portion of the mothers felt that identical treatment would adequately respond to their needs. The vast majority supported law reform that would extend to them the benefits of the current system, while simultaneously expanding the existing framework to include a wider variety of parental and family configurations within it. The reform model chosen to achieve this aim combined parental presumptions in favour of the lesbian couple or a single lesbian mother, with opt-in mechanisms that allowed the family to extend beyond the two parent unit. / Law, Faculty of / Graduate

What does it mean for an immigrant to be a “good” mother? Asian immigrants in Canada experience pressures to assimilate to a “normal,” homogenous ideal of Canadian culture—to erase aspects of their own cultural identity as well as their diasporic history. Asian mothers specifically are subject to mothering ideologies that depict white, middle-class, happy mothers as the norm. This thesis examines literary depictions of this phenomenon in novels by Kerri Sakamoto, Hiromi Goto, and Madeleine Thien. Each of these authors offers representations of motherhood that counter racialized and gendered ideals of mothering, and that refuse to ignore the sometimes traumatic effects that diaspora can have on immigrant families. Through David Eng and Shinhee Han’s notion of “racial melancholia”, I argue that the mothers in these novels conduct “maternal melancholia,” a form of motherwork that subverts dominant ideologies of mothering, resists assimilation, and sustains losses incurred through racialization and diaspora.

Throughout history, women have suffered from the mind/ body dualism, a major component of Western patriarchal ideology, which has consigned the body to women and the brain to men. Women's role is relegated to procreating, a "natural" act of the body that produces offspring, while men create, a conscious undertaking of the mind that brings something new into being. Women artists frequently confront continuous challenges to their creativity having to choose between mothering and artistic creation. Theorists like de Beauvoir saw the two as incompatible, three novels by Nancy Huston: La Virevolte (1994), Instruments des tenebres (1996) and Prodige (1999), seem in some ways to confirm that dilemma. Yet elsewhere this bilingual author affirms not only the possibility of combining them, but the importance of doing so to produce works that are feminine. Her work challenges the view of motherhood as metaphor in French feminist theory, as Huston relates that theory to practical concerns more often associated with anglophone feminist theory. A range of feminist works on maternity will be employed to examine the changing positions adopted in these novels, where the division between creation and maternity is primordial, but this split implies different results in each case. Instead of the traditional or feminist figure of motherhood, based on maternal love or instinct, the reader is confronted with specific types of conflict between mother and child. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Orientadora: Lígia Ebner Melchiori / Banca: Silvia Regina Ricco Lucato Sigolo / Banca: Olga Maria Piazentim Rolim Rodrigues / Resumo: Na sociedade atual, o trabalho se configura como um dos fatores que podem influenciar a relação entre mãe e criança. Deste modo, verificou-se a necessidade de realizar essa pesquisa com o objetivo de descrever, comparar e relacionar a interação mãe-bebê, tempo de cuidado, rede de apoio e crenças de mães que trabalhavam fora e mães que não trabalhavam fora. Para responder aos objetivos esse trabalho foi dividido em três estudos que contaram com a participação de 16 díades mãe-bebê, sendo oito mães que exerciam atividade remunerada fora de casa e oito mães que não a exerciam. Os instrumentos utilizados foram o Questionário de Caracterização do Sistema Familiar Versão - Pais ou Responsável, o Protocolo de Avaliação da Interação Diádica - Adaptado, o Protocolo de Atividade Diária e entrevista sobre Crenças Maternas. O estudo um, "Mães que exercem ou não atividade remunerada: qualidade da interação com o bebê", apontou que as mães que trabalhavam fora estimulavam cognitivamente mais e realizavam maior diversidade de atividades com seus filhos do que as mães que não trabalhavam fora. No estudo dois, "Mães que exercem ou não atividade remunerada: tempo de cuidado com o bebê, divisão de tarefas domésticas e rede de apoio", verificou-se que mães que não trabalhavam dedicavam mais tempo ao filho durante os dias da semana enquanto o grupo que trabalhava dedicava mais tempo aos finais de semana. Destaca-se que as mães que trabalhavam praticamente não realizavam atividade de lazer sem os ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Today, work is one of the factors that can influence the relationship between mother and child. Thus, it was necessary to carry out this research to describe, compare and relate the mother-baby interaction, care time, support network and beliefs of working mothers and mothers who did not work outside. To respond to the objectives, this study was divided in three studies that had the participation of 16 mother-infant dyads, of which eight mothers were engaged in paid work outside the home and eight mothers who did not exercise paid work. The instruments used were the Family - Based or Parent - Family Version Characterization Questionnaire, the Adapted - Diadical Interaction Assessment Protocol, the Daily Activity Protocol and the Maternal Beliefs interview. The study one: Mothers who exercise or not paid activity: quality of interaction with the baby, pointed out that working mothers stimulated more cognitively and performed more diversity of activities with their children than mothers who did not work outside. In study two: mothers with or without paid activity: baby care time, division of household tasks and support network, non-working mothers were found to spend more time on their child during the days of the week while the group that worked harder on weekends. It is noteworthy that working mothers practically did not perform leisure activities without their children, which occurred in the other group. The data demonstrated that baby-related activities have been split with... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Poetry collection on domestic anhedonia, the Semele myth, lightning strikes, lobotomies, mothers and wives, women from the woods, etc. / 2031-01-01T00:00:00Z

A collection of poems around themes of motherhood, chronic illness, memory, and internal and external landscapes coalescing.

Background: Studies have reported that one of the outcomes of on-going social and demographic transition is breakdown in families’ structure. Thus the emergence of single mother families is an observed trend which is associated with poverty and negative child outcome. This study examines the levels and factors associated with single motherhood in Southern Africa. Data source and methods: This is a cross-sectional study of Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data sets for three Southern African countries of study: Lesotho (DHS) 2009, Swaziland (DHS) 2006-2007 and, Zimbabwe (DHS) 2010-2011. A total sample of 5586 women aged 15-49 for Zimbabwe, 4063 for Swaziland and 2541 for Lesotho who are either currently married or not and have at least one dependent child prior to the survey was included in the study. Data analysis was done at three stages; univariate, bivariate and multivariate level. Multivariate logistic regression which yielded odds ratio was used to identify the socioeconomic and demographic correlates of single motherhood. Results: The findings showed that the level of single motherhood in Zimbabwe is 20% (1091), Lesotho 25% (1011) and Swaziland 41% (1041) with premarital childbearing as the main source of single motherhood in the region, while widowhood and divorce is relatively low. Comparing the three countries of study in terms of correlates of single motherhood, the evidence suggested that age of respondents and number of living children, are correlates of single motherhood while religion was found not to be associated with single motherhood in all the countries of study. Younger women were more likely to become single mothers compared to older women while women with more than 2 living children are less likely to be single mothers compared to those with 1 or 2 living children. Conclusion: This study concludes that single motherhood is high in southern Africa. The implication of the rapid spread of single motherhood both reflects and reinforces the declining significance of marriage as a family status and a context for bearing and raising children. Also it may have negative implications for children from single mother families and the mothers themselves.

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The Power of Motherhood: Leah Widtsoe's Writings on Women's Roles, Influence, and the Priesthood Ashley Marie Laneri Department of Religious Education, BYU Master of ArtsThis thesis analyzes Leah Widtsoe's writings in the 1930s. Her primary emphasis was on motherhood. Widtsoe encouraged women to realize the importance of their role as mothers and the positive results a good mother can have on generations to come. Each chapter examines how Widtsoe used motherhood to help women understand their role in the Church and their role in society. The first chapter outlines Widtsoe's personal life and analyzes why motherhood was a central part of her writings. The second chapter focuses on how Widtsoe used motherhood as a construct, or in other words, a model, to motivate women and to help them understand their purpose in the Relief Society program in the Church and in the world. The third chapter focuses on the priesthood and motherhood model which Widtsoe helped originate. She used motherhood as a way to help women understand their relationship with priesthood power. Lastly, this thesis examines the contradictions, inconsistencies and patterns of Widtsoe's writings on motherhood.This study finds that Widtsoe used motherhood as a model to empower women and help them understand their relationship with priesthood power and their role in the Church. Additionally, she taught that what women did in the home had a great impact on society.

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