Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

This Ethnographic/Autoethnographic study reflects in rich detail a young teacher’s life as she navigates the changing landscape of her first pregnancy, the birth of her child and her subsequent return to work as a full-time teacher. Using data which has been collected from a personal journal which she kept throughout the eighteen month period of the study, it examines the practical and emotional challenges which she faced, and the commitment, self-sacrifice and dedication required of her for the continuation and advancement of her career. By combining her data with observed field notes, semi-constructed interviews and reflexive narrative, I have been able to offer a holistic and balanced account of her experience and expose the complexities of motherhood today and the impact they have on a woman’s life choices and professional decision making. My study revealed how this new mother faced a myriad of decisions and dilemmas, decisions, which ultimately impacted on her emotional well-being, and her power and identity as a woman, a wife, a daughter and a professional teacher. Its findings suggest that notwithstanding the historical political and legislative policies which have been implemented, in reality, little has changed since my own experience of being a working mother some thirty years ago. It recommends that if the increase in working mothers is to continue to rise, more must be done, both culturally and institutionally to alleviate the physical and emotional pressures which currently only serve to exacerbate the guilt and stress which appear to be an innate characteristic of the maternal condition. It concludes by recommending that working mothers need to harness “their strengths, their ability to learn, their confidence and joy in their work –[because this is] all part of being a woman now, [it is] part of [their] female identity” (Friedan, 1963, p.331), and rather than accepting motherhood as being a moderating factor, they should allow it to become an influence for further personal and professional growth and liberation, so that they can reassert their power and fight back to assume their equal place in society (Kristeva, 2015).

This thesis explores surrogate motherhood using Christian ethics within a relational framework. A surrogate mother is a woman who has a child for a commissioning couple who are usually infertile. Chapter one explores how surrogacy is presented in three secular and three Church reports by focusing upon the surrogate, the commissioning couple and the child. The key theological and ethical objections to surrogacy are briefly explored: that it undermines motherhood, involves baby selling, coercion, exploitation and commodification. Chapter two analyses motherhood according to three secular feminists and three theologians. The secular feminists are criticised for not recognising the complexity of motherhood. By contrast, motherhood in Christianity is presented as multidimensional. Chapter three analyses whether paid surrogacy commodifies, exploits and coerces the participants. Theologically the chapter explores human beings as created in the image of God and as having dignity, which can mean that payment does not always have to lead to commodification, exploitation or coercion. Chapter four explores whether paid surrogacy involves baby selling. Theologically the chapter explores the concepts of the self and other in Augustine and Aquinas. It also explores agape in Anders Nygren and Gene Outka, arguing that self-interest and altruism can co-exist with care for the self and the other in a relational framework without detriment. Comparisons are made with blood donation to suggest that paid and unpaid surrogacy can operate together without paid surrogacy being regarded as baby selling or the purchase of parenthood. Finally, chapter five outlines three models towards surrogacy: a contract model, an adoption model and my relational approach, influenced by Louis Janssens’ personalism. My relationalism aims for a more sophisticated ontology of the relationship between the self and the other and calls for various solutions in a surrogacy custody dispute.

This collection is an attempt to understand being a woman by exploring the before, during, after of becoming a mother. Loss, sex, identity, failure, gratitude and family are common threads.

Single motherhood has become increasingly common and yet very little research examines how women themselves experience the transition into single motherhood, thus their life stories remain largely unchronicled. This study explores the lived experience of transition from motherhood within a married or co-habiting couple to single motherhood for professional working mothers. The study is idiographic and qualitative and it is grounded in the detailed accounts of individual women going through the transition, prioritising their own view of the experience. Six professional women took part in semi structured interviews, and interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to analyse the material. Three superordinate themes were identified; the first highlighted the emotional turmoil the women experienced , in the initial phase of transition, in relation to personal, familial and social consequences that divorce might have on them and their children. The second theme detailed the women's actual experiences of these consequences and their effects following divorce, with the most notable finding being that the women concurrently held ambivalent or conflicting feelings about their experience. The third superordinate theme pertained to the social stigma and stereotyping that the women encountered throughout the transitional process. Existing literature on life transitions, motherhood and single motherhood was used in order to discuss the findings. The findings revealed that after a great deal of emotional struggle women satisfactorily negotiated and adapted to their new single mother status. The outcome of this study has implementations for clinical work with professional women as it highlights the benefits of allowing them to become aware of and examine the possible transitions that might arise from ambivalent feelings as they make the transition from married to single motherhood.

This qualitative study was undertaken for the purpose of answering the following two research questions: (a) What is the personal meaning and experience of mothering for women who feel they are actively resisting the Western dominant discourse on mothering?, and (b) How are these personal meanings and experiences grounded in the participants' personal contexts as well as in dominant and alternative discourses and discursive practices? Fifteen women ranging in age from 23 to 46 years, who self identified as actively resisting the dominant discourse, were interviewed about their mothering experiences. Their interviews were transcribed and analyzed following a critical interpretive approach (Cushman, 1995; Packer & Addison, 1989). In answering the first research question three themes were identified: (a) resisting is rewarding and liberating, (b) resisting entails juggling and balancing, (c) resisting entails cognitive work, refraining, and reconciling. Although acknowledging the pragmatic and cognitive challenges inherent in so doing, the women in the study experienced a sense of empowerment and pride in their choice to resist. In answering the second question, participants' identified concrete structural barriers to their efforts to mother differently and acknowledged the importance of supportive partners, friends, extended family members, education, financial resources, and flexible employment as critical in their efforts to resist having their own needs completely subjugated to those of their children. Participants drew on the discourses of feminism, achievement, individualism, collectivity, self-care, science, attachment, and alternative medicine in supporting their efforts to resist. They positioned themselves as caring responsible mothers, independent women, educated/professionals, critical thinkers, and activists. The findings suggest that in positioning themselves in opposition to the dominant, 'selfless mother' discourse, the participants were faced with negotiating between multiple and often contradictory discourses. In particular, the women in the study struggled to negotiate between the selfless mother and the individual rights/self actualization discourses. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the perception of resistance may be as important in engendering a sense of agency for women who mother, as the actual manifestation of resistance in their mothering practices. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research, theory, and clinical practice. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation analyzes four twenty-first-century Catalan novels which present the complex positions occupied by mothers in the last seven decades. Its conceptual framework posits motherhood as both a changing social construction and a political institution in a constant state of flux. In Inma Monsó´s Todo un carácter (2001), Eva Piquer´s Una victoria diferente (2002), Carme Riera´s La mitad del alma (2004), and Najat El Hachmi´s El último patriarca (2008) motherhood is explored as a metaphorical act, a gender-constructing experience, as well as the locus of expression with regard to gender and power relations. During the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975), the majority of women were excluded from public spaces, and forced to stay home to care for their husbands and children. Furthermore, the state criminalized abortion, made contraception and divorce illegal, and promoted an ideal of femininity based on silence, sacrifice, and self-denial. The political changes of the late 1970s allowed women greater personal autonomy, and many women writers began to challenge stereotypical views of women’s social roles. Yet in the 70s and 80s, the narratives of Esther Tusquets, Ana María Moix, and Montserrat Roig represent the mother as a repressive figure whom the daughter must reject in order to liberate herself and regain her voice. It is not until the 90s when the novelists Mercedes Abad, Maruja Torres, Carme Riera, Imma Monsó, Eva Piquer, and María Barbal rehumanize the mother figure, recovering their matrilineal heritage. However, far from suggesting a unified trend in representations of motherhood in Catalan fiction, the diverse points of view of the novels under discussion here reveal that differences in attitudes among women authors about mother-daughter conflict are far from resolved. The theoretical background for this dissertation draws mainly on the work of Adrienne Rich, Nancy Chodorow, and Julia Kristeva. It includes psychoanalytic studies as well as sociologically based essays by Anna López Puig, Amparo Acereda, Jacqueline Cruz, Barbara Zecchi, Ángeles de la Concha, and Raquel Osborne, among others.

The following study explores the conditions under which former adolescent mothers were successfully or unsuccessfully reintegrated back into high school before and after giving birth. 12 semi-structured, in-depth, interviews were conducted with former adolescent mothers aged 22-23. An exploratory qualitative research approach was adopted as the study sought to acquire information that was specific to the social context and opinions of the former adolescent mothers. In addition, the study sought to explore the factors that contributed to the successful or unsuccessful reintegration of former adolescent mothers back into schools making sense of their recollections of their experiences before and after giving birth. The findings show that despite the interlinked causal factors that may have led to the unplanned pregnancies of adolescent mothers, the journey of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood worked to reinforce their motivation to complete school. Furthermore, the findings indicate that successful reintegration into high school and dealing with adolescent pregnancy and motherhood required various interventions that involved schools, families and the community to ensure the best possible chances for successful reintegration into high school. Recommendations were suggested in the study to enhance the provision of support interventions in managing adolescent pregnancy and parenthood, including, revised curriculum of sexual education, educator training and development, as well as provision of support by families and communities. / Mini Dissertation (MSoSci)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Sociology / MSoSci / Unrestricted

Includes bibliographical references.

The study explored whether South African mothers subscribed to the Western ideology of intensive motherhood and how this ideology was altered or resisted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten working South African mothers with a child under the age of ten. Thematic content analysis revealed that motherhood was largely regarded as synonymous with womanhood, where the inherent and biological ability to bear children rendered the mother responsible for intensive efforts in child-raising. As a result, motherhood was a gendered practice situated within a powerful and normative ideology of inequality. These themes were discussed in the racially stratified and gendered context of South Africa from a feminist perspective. The research concluded with a recommendation that alternative motherhood ideologies, more representative of the diverse contexts and experiences of mothers, are explored.