MGS / Institute for Youth and Gender Studies

The dissertation Art and Motherhood deals with the influence of motherhood on the experienced reality of women active in artistic practice - artists, theorists, curators and activists. Using feminist and artistic research methods, I collect and analyse the specific experiences of individual mothers. Capturing the breadth of possible views, perspectives and experiences that motherhood brings is essential to my research. I am not concerned in isolation instances of specific artistic realisations, but rather with the processes, environments and contexts of making, and the creative and life strategies employed in reconciling the personal and professional roles of individual women artists. The content of a series of thirty-five conducted interviews comprises the research material for the work, but is also the source for the practical component of the dissertation - the book Milk and Honey co-published by the wo-men and AVU publishing houses. The practice of two related community-based mothers' groups - Breastfeeding Guerillas and Mothers Artlovers is also examined. While Breastfeeding Guerrilla is a support group for mothers promoting and normalizing breastfeeding, Mothers Artlovers is a support group for parents in the arts. All of these research units set a community-based perspective on all research affecting the universal, multi-layered and inherently collective topic of motherhood.

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / This study aimed to determine whether there is a dominant discourse on motherhood in one semi-rural, low-income, Coloured community. It investigated the personal and individual meanings that this group of mothers attach to motherhood, and what they regard to be “good” or “bad” mothering practices. In exploring discourses the study also aimed at describing the prevailing values, assumptions, ideas, rules, fantasies and dreams concerning motherhood that prevail in the Kylemore community. The present study used data from a research project entitled the “Maternal Mental Health Project” (MMHP). The MMHP focuses on the psychological distress and resilience of low-income mothers residing in the community of Kylemore. The main focus of this larger study was extensive open-ended interviews with the women concerning their pregnancies, birth and motherhood experiences. All women reporting at the Kylemore clinic for prenatal and antenatal visits were recruited. These women were interviewed at four different points in time by the same interviewer, focusing on women’s experience of pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, birth and early motherhood. Approximately 90 women were interviewed (360 one-hour interviews) over a period of four years. Based on feminist social constructionist ideas, the current study utilised qualitative methodologies. The interviews were transcribed and then analysed according to social constructionist grounded theory. The main categories that emerged during coding revolved around what participants considered to be “good” or “bad” mothering practices. The findings clearly indicated that mothers in this community are able to both recognise and define desirable and undesirable practices of motherhood. The themes pertaining to “good” mothering focused around two central concepts: the contextual factors which determine good motherhood; and the qualities evident in a good mother. A “bad” mother was seen to be someone who was unconcerned about taking responsibility for her child, leaving this responsibility for others to fulfil. It is suggested that for many of these women, their aspirations of ideal motherhood are unrealistic and unattainable due to the social and economic circumstances in which they live. Women are thus effectively set up for failure, due to a discourse of “perfect” motherhood that seems impossible to achieve in these circumstances. This is exacerbated by the fact that “good” mothering and “bad” mothering are considered to be discrete and dichotomous categories, with no possible overlap between the two categories. It is suggested that psychologists working with low-income mothers should be involved in discussions about more realistic and less rigid discourses of motherhood, discourses that take contextual factors into account.

The aim of this paper is to study how Swedish ­Jewish women and non-men relate to widespread notions of Jewish motherhood and the trope of ”the Jewish mother”, through their own  stories. The paper asks how they relate to notions of Jewish motherhood, how these notions  function in the construction of their identities as Jewish and how it relates to processes of  community and nationalism. The material that is analyzed is the narrative of fourteen Jewishidentified women/non-men gathered with a survey interview. It is analyzed through theories  of the relation between motherhood and nationalism, the constitutive terms of a diaspora and an intersectional approach to racialized processes of gender and gendered processes of the  constitution of race and ethnicity. The thesis concludes that through the informants’ stories  the cultural symbol of ”motherhood” is dependent upon certain symbols in its own, such as  food and religious practices, that relate to identity processes among the informants, and to  processes of community and nationalism tied to motherhood. Jewish mothers, potential  mothers and parents are effected by expectations of certain Jewish ways of performing  motherhood in their identification as Jewish and in their sense of belonging to the Jewish  community. They also relate these expectations to portrayals of Jewish mothers from popular culture as well as to the parenting and memories of their own mothers and ancestral women.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This review examines the medical model's conceptualisation of postnatal depression (pND) from a feminist perspective. The arguments are fourfold: Firstly, it argues that the fundamental problem underlying the concept of PND is its conception as existing on a continuum with psychosis at the most severe end and maternity blues at the least severe end. The link with psychosis implies that it is potentially pathological requiring medical and psychiatric intervention. On the other hand its link with maternity blues gives scientific credence to continued research on emotional sequelae of reproduction that are below the psychiatric threshold of urgency. Secondly, the medical model's construction of PND implies that women are predisposed to mental illness because of their ability to bear children and thus pathologises normal experiences of childbirth. Thirdly, the medical model's preoccupation with classification and categorisation has become little more than an exercise in labeling that has removed women from their own experiences. Focusing on birth as an activity that is separate from the rest of pregnancy objectify women and ignores the socio-political context within which they give birth and care for their infants. Fourthly, it is argued that a different way of researching postpartum mood disorders is necessary to overcome a reductionistic and pathological model of childbirth. This is important if healthcare delivery hopes to provide adequate treatment for all women in the postnatal period. Especially in South Africa, where the dominant culture has for many years defined the experiences of the 'other', it is important to generate research that should include the 'voices' of the 'other' to prevent hegemonic practice from assuming an expert understanding of PND. This review does not deny the contributions from the medical establishment, but argues that a critique of its underlying assumptions is important to prevent women from being further marginalised by ignoring the socio-political context in which their lives are embedded. The implications for research within South Africa are also addressed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie oorsig ondersoek die mediese model se konseptualisering van postnatale depressie vanuit 'n feministiese perspektief. Die argument is vierledig: Eerstens blyk die konseptualisering van postnatale depressie, naamlik dat dit op 'n kontinuum bestaan, met psigose aan die mees disfunksionele kant en 'maternity blues' aan die minder ernstige kant, 'n fundamentele, onderliggende probleem te wees. Die verband met psigose impliseer dat postnatale depressie potensieel patologies is en mediese en psigiatriese insette benodig. Die verband met 'maternity blues' aan die ander kant, bied wetenskaplike begronding vir volgehoue navorsing op die gebied van emosionele aspekte van kindergeboorte wat nie van psigiatriese belang is nie. Tweedens impliseer die mediese model se konstruksie van postnatale depressie dat vroue 'n predisposisie tot geestessiektes het bloot deur die feit dat hulle die vermoë het om kinders voort te bring. Sodoende word patologiese kenmerke gekoppel aan normale ervarings van kindergeboorte. Derdens het die mediese model se beheptheid met klassifikasie en kategorisering verval in etikettering wat vroue van hul eie ervarings vervreem. Deur te fokus op geboorte as 'n aktiwiteit wat verwyder is van die res van swangerskap maak van vroue objekte wat verwyderd is van die sosio-politieke konteks waarbinne hulle geboorte skenk en sorg vir hul babas. Vierdens word dit beredeneer dat 'n nuwe benadering tot navorsing oor postpartum gemoedsteurings daar gestel behoort te word om 'n reduksionistiese en patologiese model van kindergeboorte te voorkom. Dit is belangrik as gesondheidsorgdienste hoop om toereikende behandeling te bied vir alle vroue in die postnatale periode. Veral in Suid-Afrika, waar 'n dominante kultuurgroep vir so lank die ervarings van ander omskryf het, is dit belangrik om navorsing voort te bring wat die 'stemme' van die 'ander' insluit om sodoende te verhoed dat die heersende praktykvoeringe van die dag 'n eensydige deskundige-verstaan van postnatale depressie voorveronderstel. Hierdie oorsig ontken nie die bydraes van die mediese model nie, maar beredeneer die feit dat 'n kritiese beskouing van die onderliggende aannames belangrik is om sodoende te verhoed dat vroue verder gemarginaliseer word deurdat die sosio-politieke konteks waarin hul lewens gegrond is, buite rekening gelaat word. Die implikasies vir navorsing binne 'n Suid-Afrikaanse konteks word dus ook ondersoek.

This thesis examines women’s experiences of, and attitudes towards, motherhood between 1945 and 1970. The thesis is based on ninety-two oral history interviews with women from different locations in Oxfordshire – rural, urban and suburban. Oral history is a methodology that can provide objective information about women’s lives, but also reveals their thoughts and feelings through the subjectivity of their accounts. The thesis forms a qualitative study looking at six aspects of motherhood. The first is the portrayal of motherhood in contemporary social surveys and community studies. The second is the issue of education for motherhood and questions over whether mothering was innate to women or needed to be taught. Thirdly, the thesis investigates maternity care provision and disputes over who should provide it (namely midwives, GPs or consultants); where this care should take place; and whether pregnancy and childbirth were medical conditions at all. Next it discusses theories of child development and discourses of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mothers, in order to look at women’s relationship with authorities on childcare. Then it considers critiques of working mothers and debates over whether women should work outside the home; if so, when they should do so; and what strategies they should employ so that work and motherhood could be combined. Finally it analyses popular conceptions of motherhood, marriage and the family, and how the interviewees related to representations of the ideal mother figure during the immediate post-war decades and beyond. The thesis concludes by demonstrating the real difficulties mothers faced during the period 1945-1970; that interviewees from all types of background shared an understanding of how ‘normal’ women should behave; and also that the stereotyping of the period as one of conservatism before the changes that began in the later 1960s and 1970s means the ways in which women were already organising themselves to improve their lives has tended to be disregarded.

Food historians have revealed that what constituted a working-class British woman's diet in the nineteenth century was quite different in calorific and nutritional content from what her family consumed. This work explores the nineteenth-century maternal diet and the effect this nutritional inequality had on the health of women and their infants. Divided into three sections, this dissertation deals with different aspects of nineteenth-century maternal nutrition. Section one explores the nineteenth-century medical understanding of diet, as well as the influences of class and traditional beliefs on eating habits, and how these factors determined the diet prescribed to mothers during pregnancy. Section two investigates the factors that perpetuated the unequal distribution and consumption of food within households. Factors explored include regional variations in working-class diet; gender associations with foods; economic changes in material wealth and expectations, and the pressures of respectability on female food denial. This section concludes that food refusal and unequal distribution were reinforced throughout the long nineteenth century because these behaviours appeared to have value, real or imagined, as long-term economic strategies. Food refusal maintained respectability, and helped women secure an economic support network. Mothers' self-denial seems to have secured the economic loyalties of children, making her the recipient of their income. The final section addresses how deprivation and dietary changes affected infant and maternal health, specifically examining how insufficient vitamin D and rickets influenced birth outcomes, and how the switch from a rural diet to an urban diet contributed to a rise in neural tube disorders in Wales. The analysis of childbirth data revealed a significant correlation between rickets and childbirth complications. The findings of this section also suggest that the dietary changes that followed migration and the change from an agricultural lifestyle to a market-integrated, industrial lifestyle for a majority of the Welsh population reduced women's intake of folic acid leaving their children susceptible to neural tube disorders.

The aim of this study was to examine how expectations may affect a new mother during postnatal depression, both her own expectations and he expectations she feels from her surroundings. The result is based on seven interviews with mothers who have had postnatal depression. It is not uncommon for women to suffer from postpartum depression after childbirth, studies show that approximately ten percent of all new mothers are affected. Symptoms of postpartum depression are, besides the symptoms for regular depression also feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness or she might difficulties feeling happy about the situation and the baby. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the material. The study shows that those feelings does not go well together with the so called mother myth, that the new mother is supposed to feel instant love towards the baby and be the more responsible parent. This leads to the mother feeling guilty and ashamed. Because of this, several mothers feel reluctant to seek help. This is due to emotions of guilt and shame. The study also showed that the women felt a lack of professional care and the need for development in the professional field. Three important factors in the care were presented: Information, knowledge and understanding.

ABSTRACT In this dissertation, I explore my role as an administrator in higher education admissions at a major university and as a working mother who faces many real world challenges. The grueling travel demands, lofty enrollment goals, campus and inter-office politics, as well as the weekend and late night hours required, made it extremely difficult to achieve a healthy work life balance in admissions while also raising a small child. Additionally, "admissions" is increasingly becoming the "hot seat" within institutions of higher education. Gone are the days of an almost tenure like quality to enrollment professionals. If an enrollment director or vice president does not meet his numbers, their position is gone. Through Scholarly Personal Narrative methodology, I seek to inquire into my experiences and to understand and focus on my resilience and spirituality and how I have come to harness this power in my work with students and their parents in one of the most anticipated and often dreaded parts of individuation-- the college admissions process. I share how becoming a working (single) mother in this profession was especially challenging amidst the highest-ranking professional women where I worked, many of whom were not mothers. I could not find a role model at the top that had small children. In this process, I discovered that I could use my experience and education in a more family-friendly role--higher education consulting.

Toni Morrison chose to revisit the neo-slave narrative genre twenty-five years after the publication of Beloved with A Mercy in 2008. With these two texts, Morrison offers her readers one story that shows the descent into slavery and one that shows progression towards freedom. The purpose of this thesis is to place Morrison’s two neo-slave narratives, Beloved and A Mercy, next to one another in order to better understand the journey to freedom through self-love. This work examines the concept of self-love and the necessary components—maternal nurturance, ancestral connection, and communal interaction—that must come together to help Morrison’s characters learn to love and see themselves as their “own best thing.” The repercussions that self-love’s absence has for both individual characters and their larger communities is also discussed and illustrated by the struggles of Florens in A Mercy and Sethe in Beloved.