Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Advancement in education has ensured that there is parity in terms of enrolment for both females and males at tertiary institutions. However, women students continue to face challenges to advancing in education. Given that South African society remains highly gendered and that universities are historically male-dominated sites that do not necessarily cater for the particular needs of women (or children), one area of challenge may relate to having to balance parenting roles with the demands of being a student. For example, at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), students with children are prohibited from access to the residences, leaving them with no option but to seek alternative accommodation, where they can remain with their babies or look for childcare support from their relatives. While there is a growing body of work on the experiences of school-going pregnant and parenting learners, there is little work in the South African context of the experiences of women who are both parents and students at tertiary institutions. Since the national education system clearly supports and encourages life-long learning, an investigation into the conditions and experiences of learning for parenting students is important. The focus on women students was motivated by existing findings that show how normative gender roles persist and that women continue to be viewed as the primary nurturers with respect to the care of children. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of motherhood among young female students at UWC. The study was situated within a feminist social constructionist framework and a feminist qualitative methodology was employed. Two or more interviews were conducted with a group of eight participants, selected by convenient sampling, and aged between 18 and 30 years, each with a child or children under the age of five years. Interviews were conducted at the participants choice of location and at a time that was convenient to them. All interviews were audio-recorded and the tapes were kept safely in the researchers home. All standard ethical procedures for research with human subjects were followed. Data was transcribed verbatim and a qualitative thematic analysis was conducted. Key themes were elucidated and data presented thematically. The key challenges cited included time management, self motivation and the social demands of being a mother. These tend to have adverse repercussions on academic excellence. The analysis revealed that though the young women are allowed to return to universities after becoming mothers, they face many challenges in trying to balance motherhood and the demands of schooling. Furthermore, the findings highlight the tension and ambivalence experienced by participants as they negotiate the social and cultural expectations of motherhood and their personal reality, in meeting the demands of motherhood as student mothers. In their struggle to meet the social and cultural expectations of motherhood, they placed tremendous emotional and physical stress upon themselves which manifested as guilt, physical exhaustion, psychological stress, physical illness and the desire to leave studies notwithstanding the value they attached to it. Although the participants challenged these expectations in various ways, the underlying nuances when they recounted their experiences, remain embedded in these societal and cultural expectations. However, in voicing their experiences, it was clear that they were not always simply accepting the status quo but at times challenging it, and thereby deconstructing the myths of motherhood that are so salient in current social and cultural contexts. The study also found that student mothers at UWC, at least on the basis of this small sample - do not appear to receive sufficient support on campus (physically, materially and emotionally). The study concludes that this group of student mothers face serious challenges as mothers and students and, further, that these challenges are exacerbated by the continued social expectations of women to be perfect mothers which, together with the material gender inequalities in sharing parenting care, could impede effective academic studies. The study recommends that universities play a stronger role in alleviating the challenges for such students. In addition, it recommends that more research be conducted in the area, possibly longitudinal studies, as well as studies that may be more generalisable. / South Africa

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:08:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paula Barbosa de Oliveira.PDF: 727035 bytes, checksum: 5478ce40329b4af1801579d4475a0edc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-03-02 / The present Master s Dissertation adopted the Post-Structuralism perspective as theorical reference. It reefers to a qualitative research which main objective was to comprehend motherhood for ten women within the ages of 25 and 35 years old, without children, living in the city of Recife. We identified their projects and priorities of life, their concept of maternity and their feelings, conflicts and beliefs related to the subject. For the research we used a semi-structured interview, which was carried out individually and taped by the researcher. The Analysis of Content (MINAYO, 1999) was used to analyze the obtained material. As the interviews were analyzed we understood that the participants first priority, as a life project, is profession, followed by sentimental life and maternity. The results point to a significant change in feminine identity, reveling that women, nowadays, plan maternity according to their professional conquers and their conjugal stability. Never the less, the same time they assume a new position in their carriers and dedicate to an occupation, they also desire with the same intensity for maternity. Therefore the subject-positions that these contemporary women assume must not be thought as something stable but as a processes of continuum identification which is connected to a wider context such as: culture, politics, religion, economy and others. In the same way, we can affirm that there isn t only one representation of maternity and only one way to be a mother. There is it s a continuum process of construction. We are plastic beings becoming as we interact with others in the world we live. We formulate and reformulate our ways of life, we assume and abandon identities, we are crossed by the historical context and dominant discourse existed in the lives we live / A presente dissertação de Mestrado adota a perspectiva pós-estruturalista como referência teórica. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa que teve como objetivo geral compreender a representação de maternidade para 10 mulheres com idade entre 25 e 35 anos, sem filhos, pertencentes à camada social média da Cidade do Recife. Identificamos seus projetos e prioridades de vida, o conceito de maternidade e os sentimentos, conflitos e crenças relacionados ao tema. Para a pesquisa utilizamos uma entrevista semi-estruturada, realizada individualmente e gravada pela pesquisadora. Para a análise do material obtido utilizou-se a Análise de Conteúdo (MINAYO, 1999). Ao analisar as entrevistas, compreendemos que as entrevistadas colocam em primeiro lugar, como projeto, o profissional, seguido da vida amorosa e da maternidade. Os resultados apontam para uma significativa mudança na identidade feminina, revelando que a mulher, hoje, planeja a maternidade de acordo com suas conquistas profissionais e estabilidade conjugal. Assim, ao mesmo tempo em que assume uma nova posição no mercado de trabalho e dedica-se muito à profissão, não se deve estranhar o fato de que também deseje, com a mesma intensidade, a maternidade. Porém, as posições-de-sujeito que a mulher contemporânea assume, hoje, não deve ser pensada como algo estável, mas como um processo de identificação constante, que está atrelado a um amplo contexto, do qual fazem parte: a cultura, a política, a religião, a economia, entre outros fatores. Da mesma forma, podemos afirmar que não existe um único modo de ser mãe ou uma única representação de maternidade. O que há é construção permanente, um processo de identificação constante. Como seres plásticos, nos construímos em conjunto, em interação com o mundo que habitamos. Formulamos e reformulamos os modos de existir, assumimos e abandonamos identidades, atravessados pelo contexto histórico e o discurso dominante da época em que vivemos

I 1990-talets USA blossade en het debatt upp som polariserade amerikanska mammor i två distinkta och antagonistiska grupper: förvärvsinkomstarbetande mammor respektive hemmavarande mammor, samtidigt som inkomstklyftorna mellan låg-, medel och höginkomsttagare ökade lavinartat i USA. Mödrar från olika samhällsklasser förenades i ställningstaganden för och emot antingen konservativt eller progressivt hållna värderingar och sociala konstruktioner av kvinna och mamma. Konflikternas retoriska natur, som karaktäriseras av utpräglade former av skambeläggning, har namngivit samtidens centrala begrepp för att beskriva det sociala fenomenet, ”Mom shaming”, som i mindre utsträckning struktureras i stabilt polariserade dualistiska antiteser, utan istället karaktäriseras av multifacetterade och instabila motsatsförhållande sinsemellan flera, rådande mammastereotyper. Syftet är att söka nå en djupare förståelse av det sociala fenomenets betydelse och utbredning i Sverige samt identifiera förknippade platser, situationer och sociala institutioner. Med utgångspunkt i observerade interaktioner mellan (främst) kvinnor i diskussionsinlägg på sociala medieplattformar, och med hjälp av informanter söker studien att skildra hur individer upplever sitt moderskap i relation till sina föreställningar om och upplevelser av andra mammor, och vilken inverkan andra mammors föreställningar, handlingar och åsikter har för deras eget perspektiv på mammaroller. / The early 1990’s gave concurrent rise to increasing income gaps between the rich and the poor, low- and middle-income citizens, and to an agitated debate in the United States, that divided moms into two distinctly antagonistic groups: working moms and stay-home moms. Based on shared value sets, moms from all over the socioeconomic spectra could unite in support of and in opposition to either the more conservatively leaning or progressively liberal standpoint on social constructs of mothership and woman. The contemporary term for describing the social phenomena “Mom shaming”, reflects the rhetoric nature of ongoing conflicts characterized by particularly pronounced forms of shaming; manifested to a lesser degree in stable polarizations of dualistic antitheses, but rather in multifaceted, instable contradictions among contemporary stereotypes of mom. The aim is to reach a deeper understanding of its meanings and prevalence in Sweden, and to identify the places, situations and social institutions associated with it. On the premises of observed interactions between (primarily) women in the commentaries of social media platforms and with the help of informants, this study aims to depict individuals’ experiences of motherhood in relation to their conceptions and experiences of other women’s motherhood, and describe how prevailing conceptions, actions and standpoints among moms, influence individuals’ perspectives on motherhood.

Huss M. Is a woman aloud to regret her motherhood?. A qualitative study about social workers perception of women who regret having children. Degree project in social work 15 credits. Malmö University: Faculty of Health and Society, Department of Social Work, 2018.A common opinion is that having children is a choice you can’t regret. But what happens when women deviate from this norm and regret that they were having children? The purpose of this study was to investigate how social workers perceive women who regret that they were having children and how this perception affects their social work. The empirical material was collected by semi-structured interview questions in combination with the vignette method. Six social workers, which are working with children and families, were interviewed and then the material was processed by using coding and categorization. Eight categories were identified and analysed from a norm critical perspective, a psychological cultural perspective and Goffman’s theory about stigma. The study result showed that the social workers tended to explain the women’s feelings of regret as caused by reasons like postpartum depression, mental illness and attachment problems. The study results also showed that norms about motherhood influenced how the social workers viewed the topic. This was expressed in the discussions about how the children could be affected by the mothers’ feelings of regret. The discussions also gave an indication that the social workers had a different way of reasoning, depending on the gender of the parent who was feeling regret in these situations.Keywords: Motherhood, norms, regret, stigma, social work.

This thesis aimed to explore mothers experiences of having a child with special needs througha gender equality perspective. Four mothers were interviewed through a semi-structured interview guide. Feminist disability studies and emotional labor with an intersectional perspective have been the guiding framework. To analyse the empirical material I have used aqualitative thematic analysis. Research has shown that heterosexual couples with children in Sweden are becoming more equal in terms of the unpaid” invisible” household chores. However, parents who has children with disabilities and in need for more extensive care tend to take on more traditional roles. The findings have shown that mothers are more often the one who takes care of the necessary chores concerning the child’s disability. At the same time, she also needs to take a step back in her career or not able to have work outside the home. For some of the families, the necessary chores have been divided into administrative or practical tasks were one parent has done more than the other. To get a deeper knowledge about why it was that certain gender division I have found that the deep emotional connection to their child had an intersectional effect in the decision to stay home for these mothers.

Maternal behavior is the complex array of caregiving behaviors females display towards offspring. In rats, the transition to motherhood depends on the action of various hormones, especially estradiol near parturition, which primes the maternal circuitry to respond to pups upon first encounter at parturition with appropriate maternal behavior. Although virgin rats avoid pups, new mothers are highly motivated to interact with pups, and their maternal behavior depends on the functional interaction between the medial preoptic area (mPOA) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA). However, a precise mapping of the VTA-projecting mPOA neurons remains to be elucidated. To determine whether pup-responsive neurons in the mPOA project to the VTA, we injected the retrograde tracer Fluorogold (FG) into the VTA of new mother and virgin female rats. Six days later, females were exposed to 3 pups for 5 minutes, and their brains processed to visualize FG and c-Fos immunostaining. In addition, we further characterized the molecular phenotype of these neurons by performing immunohistochemistry against estrogen receptor alpha (Esr1). As expected, the behavior of postpartum and virgin females toward pups was different. Mothers readily approached pups and displayed maternal behavior, whereas virgins avoided interaction with pups. Despite these disparate responses to pups, no differences were found in the number and distribution of mPOAc-Fos→VTA neurons. In addition, in both postpartum and virgin females, a significant proportion of these pup-responsive mPOA→VTA projecting neurons also express Esr1. Further functional interrogation of these c-Fos+/Esr1+ mPOA→VTA neurons in virgins and mothers might elucidate distinct circuit dynamics potentially underlying their behavioral differences towards pups.

Thesis advisor: Lisa A. Goodman / At the vulnerable time of separation, many survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) enter into family courts in search of protection for themselves and their children. However, they may instead face a distressing court process in which they must confront the person who abused them and encounter legal determinations that place them and their families in danger. As many survivors – particularly those who are mothers - have no choice but to engage in the family court system to address matters such as divorce and child custody, this legal institution serves as an important gatekeeper to safety. Thus, it is essential to understand why survivors repeatedly report such - often extreme - negative experiences. A growing number of qualitative studies point to legal abuse -- abusive partners’ use of court processes to enact coercive control -- as an overlooked, yet critical mechanism through which survivors and their children are harmed during family court processes. To shed light on the role of this pernicious process, this study 1) established an ecologically and psychometrically valid measure of legal abuse, 2) used the measure to explore the psychological correlates of legal abuse for survivors, and 3) leveraged a mixed-methods approach to investigate the vocational, economic, and related mental health factors associated with legal abuse. Results pave the way for further research and policy efforts that recognize and respond to legal abuse in family court. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Burnout occurs as the consequence of an overburdened stress response system which has become exhausted as the result of attempting to eliminate chronic stressors (Maslach & Jackson, 1981; Selye, 1946). In so much as parenting can be chronically stressful, researchers have begun to apply the construct of burnout to the context of parenting (Mikolajczak, Gross & Roskam, 2019; Aunola, Sorkkila & Tolvanen, 2020; Griffith, 2020; Hubert & Aujoulat, 2018; Kawamoto, Furutani & Alimardani, 2018; Mikolajczak et al., 2018a; b). American mothers consistently report feeling unable to live up to cultural ideals of the “good mother” and feeling as though they are failing (Sutherland, 2010; Collins 2021, Folbre 2008). The current COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a heightened concern for the stress load and mental health of parents with many of them having additional responsibilities and fewer resources (Griffith, 2020). Focusing specifically on U.S. mothers with multiple young children in a stable relationship, this study asks: what are the lived experiences of mothers who are burned out? Using the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Questionnaire as a measure of exhaustion (Lundgren-Nilssons et al., 2012) and utilizing a qualitative design, this study uses theoretical essentialist thematic analysis to investigate the themes which emerged from six open ended interviews. Key findings suggest that various social/ cultural ideologies along with various dimensions of perfectionism contributed to the mothers’ experience of burnout. Consequences of the mothers’ burnout included resentment toward others and herself and going into “survival mode,” wherein mothers’ made choices which did not align with her values. Another central finding was how the mother’s described feeling ashamed as a contributor and a consequence of their burnout experience. Protective factors are also discussed. The findings of this study can serve to inform public policy reform aimed at supporting mothers and children in the United States where the rates of burnout in parents have increased due to the COVID 19 pandemic (Griffith, 2020). / Orsakerna till utbrändhet är ofta på ett eller annat sätt kopplade till ett överbelastat stressresponssystem där det inte längre finns tillläckligan strategier för att hantera stressen (Maslach & Jackson, 1981; Selye, 1946). På senare tid har forskare intresserat sig för att många delar i föräldraskap kan ha samma kroniskt stressande effekter som i arbetslivet har därför intresserat sig för utbrändhet hos föräldrar (Mikolajczak, Gross & Roskam, 2019; Aunola, Sorkkila & Tolvanen, 2020; Griffith, 2020; Hubert & Aujoulat, 2018 ; Kawamoto, Furutani & Alimardani, 2018; Mikolajczak et al., 2018a; b). Flertalet studier visar att amerikanska mödrar rapporterar att de inte kan leva upp till den ”goda mammans” kulturella ideal och känner sig  misslyckade (Sutherland, 2010; Collins 2021, Folbre 2008). Den pågående COVID-19-pandemin har väckt en ökad oro för föräldrarnas stressbelastning och psykiska hälsa eftersom många föräldrar får ytterligare ansvar och färre resurser (Griffith, 2020). Denna studie fokuserar specifikt på amerikanska småbarnsmödrar som är i ett stabilt förhållande med frågeställningen om vilka upplevelser mödrar med hög risk för utbrändhet har. Urvalet om sex personer baserades på de i ett större urval som hade hög risk av utbrändhet i självskattningsskalan Shirom-Melamed Burnout Questionnaire (Lundgren-Nilssons et al., 2012) och använde en kvalitativ studiedesign. Analysen är en teoretisk essentialistisk tematisk analys med öppna intervjuer. Huvudfynden i studien visar att olika sociala/kulturella mekanismer tillsammans med perfektionism upplevdes påverka mödrarnas upplevelse av utbrändhet. Symptomen kopplade till mödrarnas utbrändhet inkluderade bitterhet mot andra och sig själv och att gå in i ett "överlevnadsläge" där mödrarna gjorde val som inte passade med deras värderingar. Ett annat centralt fynd var hur mödrarna beskrev skam som en bidragande orsak av deras utbrändhetsupplevelse. Skyddsfaktorer diskuteras också. Resultaten av denna studie kan användas för att informera om den allmänna politiska reformen som syftar till att stödja mödrar och barn i USA där antalet utbrändhet hos föräldrar har ökat på grund av COVID 19-pandemin (Griffith, 2020).

The practical part of the thesis is an intimate and inner parent album, which is based on illustration of spoken word. It replaces the ordinary photo album, which is for a long time a social necessity of every young mother. During interviews with close friends of the author were created drawings that captures photographically „uncapturable“. They expressively displays completely new experience, which the mother has to go through for the very first time - mood swings, strange tastes, childbirth, but also the moment of conception. Work replaces the mentioned photo album and was formed as a family heirloom. Therefore, considerable attention has been paid to the external processing of the album.

In this study I qualitatively explore how women who choose not to have children account for this choice in the South African context. I consider the reasons for women to remain childfree and the changing discourses of femininity that enable women to make the choice not to have children. I am also concerned with the possible implications of this choice for women’s interpersonal relationships. This study is conducted from a feminist social constructionist framework. Dominant discourses of femininity revolve around motherhood, which is considered to be the most important role. Motherhood is believed to be a “natural” identity. Mothers are highly regarded in most societies; they are perceived to be devoted to the care of others and to be self-sacrificing. Although most societies consider motherhood to be an essential feature of femininity, it can also cause ambivalent feelings and not all women wish to take on the role of motherhood. The number of women who choose to remain childfree is growing in various societies. Women increasingly have the power to choose whether they want to remain childfree. Through resisting discourses that meld femininity with motherhood, childfree women create alternative discourses that have the potential to change constructions of femininity. I used feminist social constructionism to endeavour to understand the ways in which women’s realities inform their decision not to have children. I also explore how society serves to either problematise or promote this decision. Finally, I attempt to gain a deeper understanding of how being female and childfree impacts on women’s beliefs about themselves. Interview data from semi-structured interviews conducted with women who choose to remain childfree are analysed using thematic analysis. The women interviewed were white and middle class and were found via convenience and snowball sampling. The women participating in the study report various reasons for remaining childfree. Freedom from childcare responsibility and the resulting greater opportunity for self3 fulfilment is shown to be one of the strongest reasons for remaining childfree. Other important reasons include unequal labour division in the family, concerns about the physical aspects of childbirth and recovery, life partners’ acceptance of the choice to remain childfree as well as early socialising experiences. Other reasons cited less frequently include the negative impact of childrearing on women’s emotional well-being, concerns regarding the overpopulation of the planet and a general dislike of children. Two of the themes identified in the text are not evident in the existing literature. The first of these relates to the fact that the women participating in the study do not regard motherhood as the central feature of femininity. Instead, they tend to associate femininity with the act of nurturing, rather than with the act of mothering. These women are able to strongly identify with the female role, as they do not believe that choosing to remain childfree conflicts with their female gender role. The second theme relates to the belief that the world is an evil or unsafe place and that it is therefore better to remain childfree. This belief appears to be context dependent and is based on the women’s perceptions of the crime situation in South Africa. This study contributes to the expansion of the existing literature concerning childfree women, specifically within the South African context. The findings of the research support the findings of previous studies and offer a fresh perspective through the identification of new themes. By exploring reasons women cite for remaining childfree, I argue that some women refute motherhood. The challenging of the dominant discourse that “all women are mothers” is aimed at changing the dialogue about women and thus altering existing dominant discourses. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Psychology / unrestricted