Autonomous Motherhood?

Autonomous Motherhood?
Author: Susan B. Boyd
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2015-05-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442619104

Since the end of the Second World War, increasing numbers of women have decided to become mothers without intending the biological father or a partner to participate in parenting. Many conceive via donor insemination or adopt; others become pregnant after a brief sexual relationship and decide to parent alone. Using a feminist socio-legal framework, Autonomous Motherhood? probes fundamental assumptions within the law about the nature of family and parenting. Drawing on a range of empirical evidence, including legislative history, case studies, and interviews with single mothers, the authors conclude that while women may now have the economic and social freedom to parent alone, they must still negotiate a socio-legal framework that suggests their choice goes against the interests of society, fatherhood, and children.

Motherhood and the Law

Motherhood and the Law
Author: Harry Willekens
Publisher: Göttingen University Press
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2019
Genre: Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence
ISBN: 3863954254

Who is a child’s legal mother? Must a child have exactly one mother, can it have two or three, or can it have two fathers, but no mother? Or has the concept of motherhood become obsolete and should we just talk of parenthood in a gender neutral way? Questions such as these would have appeared esoteric only a few decades ago, but as a result of new social developments (such as frequent family reconstitutions, gay and lesbian emancipation or surrogacy) and of technological innovations (such as egg and embryo donations) they have become issues in a vehement debate. The interdisciplinary contributions to this book focus on the legal definition of motherhood, on the way in which legal conceptions structure the social discourse on motherhood (and vice versa), and on the influence of legal rules on power relations between mothers, fathers, children and the state. Among the issues addressed are - the challenges to our understanding of the legal regulation of motherhood by developments in reproductive medicine; - the challenges to our understanding of the legal regulation of motherhood by parental constellations deviating from the mother-father-model (single motherhood by choice, same-gender parenthood, multiple parenthood); - the exercise of parental rights in case of parental separation and the impact of legal rules on the bargaining positions of mothers and fathers.

Relational Autonomy

Relational Autonomy
Author: Catriona Mackenzie
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2000
Genre: Agent (Philosophy).
ISBN: 0195123336

These essays explore the social and relational dimensions of individual autonomy. Rejecting the feminist charge that autonomy is inherently masculinist, the contributors draw on feminist critiques of autonomy to challenge philosophical debates about agency, identity, and moral responsibility.

The Politics of Motherhood

The Politics of Motherhood
Author: Toni Bowers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 1996-07-13
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9780521551748

An examination of the eighteenth-century social and cultural struggle to develop new ideas for virtuous motherhood.

Feminism and Families

Feminism and Families
Author: Hilde Lindemann Nelson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2016-02-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134716176

A ground-breaking volume of all new essays covering the conjunction of two topics--feminism and families--that, for all their centrality in our culture, have not been adequately examined in light of one another. While the family has suffered feminist neglect, most women are in fact members of families, living their lives within the social context of families, even at a time when the concept of "family" has become bewilderingly unstable. The intersection of families and feminism is thus one in need of philosophical reflection, as a basis both for good public policy and for the ethical relationships of intimate life.

The Oxford Handbook of Reproductive Ethics

The Oxford Handbook of Reproductive Ethics
Author: Leslie Francis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 681
Release: 2017
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0199981876

Intimate and medicalized, natural and technological, reproduction poses some of the most challenging ethical dilemmas of our time. This volume brings together scholars from multiple perspectives to address both traditional and novel questions about the rights and responsibilities of human reproducers, their caregivers, and the societies in which they live.

How to Raise Kids Who Aren't Assholes

How to Raise Kids Who Aren't Assholes
Author: Melinda Wenner Moyer
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2022-06-21
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0593086953

How to Raise Kids Who Aren't Assholes is a clear, actionable, sometimes humorous (but always science-based) guide for parents on how to shape their kids into honest, kind, generous, confident, independent, and resilient people...who just might save the world one day. As an award-winning science journalist, Melinda Wenner Moyer was regularly asked to investigate and address all kinds of parenting questions: how to potty train, when and whether to get vaccines, and how to help kids sleep through the night. But as Melinda's children grew, she found that one huge area was ignored in the realm of parenting advice: how do we make sure our kids don't grow up to be assholes? On social media, in the news, and from the highest levels of government, kids are increasingly getting the message that being selfish, obnoxious and cruel is okay. Hate crimes among children and teens are rising, while compassion among teens has been dropping. We know, of course, that young people have the capacity for great empathy, resilience, and action, and we all want to bring up kids who will help build a better tomorrow. But how do we actually do this? How do we raise children who are kind, considerate, and ethical inside and outside the home, who will grow into adults committed to making the world a better place? How to Raise Kids Who Aren't Assholes is a deeply researched, evidence-based primer that provides a fresh, often surprising perspective on parenting issues, from toddlerhood through the teenage years. First, Melinda outlines the traits we want our children to possess—including honesty, generosity, and antiracism—and then she provides scientifically-based strategies that will help parents instill those characteristics in their kids. Learn how to raise the kind of kids you actually want to hang out with—and who just might save the world.

Modern Motherhood and Women’s Dual Identities

Modern Motherhood and Women’s Dual Identities
Author: Petra Bueskens
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 451
Release: 2018-05-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317195450

Why do women in contemporary western societies experience contradiction between their autonomous and maternal selves? What are the origins of this contradiction and the associated ‘double shift’ that result in widespread calls to either ‘lean in’ or ‘opt out’? How are some mothers subverting these contradictions and finding meaningful ways of reconciling their autonomous and maternal selves? In Modern Motherhood and Women’s Dual Identities, Petra Bueskens argues that western modernisation consigned women to the home and released them from it in historically unprecedented, yet interconnected, ways. Her ground-breaking formulation is that western women are free as ‘individuals’ and constrained as mothers, with the twist that it is the former that produces the latter. Bueskens’ theoretical contribution consists of the identification and analysis of modern women’s duality, drawing on political philosophy, feminist theory and sociology tracking the changing nature of discourses of women, freedom and motherhood across three centuries. While the current literature points to the pervasiveness of contradiction and double-shifts for mothers, very little attention has been paid to how (some) women are subverting contradiction and ‘rewriting the sexual contract’. Bridging this gap, Bueskens’ interviews ten ‘revolving mothers’ to reveal how periodic absence, exceeding the standard work-day, disrupts the default position assigned to mothers in the home, and in turn disrupts the gendered dynamics of household work. A provocative and original work, Modern Motherhood and Women’s Dual Identities will appeal to graduate students and researchers interested in fields such as Women and Gender Studies, Sociology of Motherhood and Social and Political Theory.

Motherhood, Childlessness and the Care of Children in Atlantic Slave Societies

Motherhood, Childlessness and the Care of Children in Atlantic Slave Societies
Author: Camillia Cowling
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 502
Release: 2020-05-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 0429535805

This book provides critical perspectives on the multiple forms of ‘mothering’ that took place in Atlantic slave societies. Facing repeated child death, mothering was a site of trauma and grief for many, even as slaveholders romanticized enslaved women’s work in caring for slaveholders' children. Examining a wide range of societies including medieval Spain, Brazil, and New England, and including the work of historians based in Brazil, Cuba, the United States, and Britain, this collection breaks new ground in demonstrating the importance of mothering for the perpetuation of slavery, and the complexity of the experience of motherhood in such circumstances. This pathbreaking collection, on all aspects of the experience, politics, and representations of motherhood under Atlantic slavery, analyses societies across the Atlantic world, and will be of interest to those studying the history of slavery as well as those studying mothering throughout history. This book comprises two special issues, originally published in Slavery & Abolition and Women’s History Review.

Motherhood and Modernity

Motherhood and Modernity
Author: Christine Everingham
Publisher:
Total Pages: 176
Release: 1994
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN:

This powerful book extends contemporary scholarly debates on mothering and modernity and is a valuable resource for teaching in women's studes and sociology.