Motherhood: Meanings, Practices and Ideologies (Gender and Psychology series) - Tapa blanda

`interesting... There is a wealth of quotation from the research participants and the style is lively... I would recommend it as a provocative read' - Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

`An excellent and well-written book, exploring personalised meanings of motherhood and the manifestations of those meanings in practice. It manages to avoid an overly polemic or politicised stance while grappling bravely with issues of social control and political power... a refreshing book [which] fleshes out the reality of mothers as real women... The real courage of this book is that it dares to ask the questions it does. It dares to explore the mother's needs, her other relationships, her other children, her perception of self. It dares to challenge the established order based on the assumption of exclusive and permanent availability... very stimulating and challenging' - The British Journal of Educational Psychology

`This collection includes insightful critiques... makes a valuable and valiant contribution to the ceaselessly formidable challenge of denaturalizing `maternal thinking'' - Journal of Marriage and the Family

`Addresses the ways in which psychology can contribute meaningfully to an exploration of the central questions about motherhood... well written and thoughtful... this volume lays valuable groundwork for an interdisciplinary attempt to pool both sociological and psychological approaches as a common resource in researching motherhood both as individual experience and as cultural institution' - Feminism & Psychology

`this book is an example of the new wave of critiques of psychological models and practices that are now beginning to emerge from feminists working within the discipline. The focus on the book is on how psychology has constructed models of mothering and the ways it has distorted or failed to reflect women's experiences of mothering. There is a clear structure and organization... It could be argued that formulating critiques which assume that a discipline like psychology can be `improved' is reformist. But this would be to ignore that strategic impact this persuasive book will have for its audience within psychology' - Feminist Review

The authors critically examine assumptions that not only underpin `commonsense' notions about motherhood, but are also produced and reproduced in childcare manuals and theoretical work on mothering. They show how dominant discourses about motherhood both circumscribe and conflict with the range of practices of mothers as they care for their children in real life. The impact of these contradictions are considered for women without children, for mothers who are younger or older than average, for mothers of children with disabilities. It investigates mothering girls as compared to boys, bringing up more than the single child assumed in much childcare literature, and current myths about working mothers.