The cultural contradictions of motherhood /
Working mothers today confront not only conflicting demands on their time and energy but also conflicting ideas about how they are to behave: they must be nurturing and unselfish while engaged in child rearing but competitive and ambitious at work. As more and more women enter the workplace, it woul...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Book |
Language: | English |
Published: |
New Haven :
Yale University Press,
c1996
New Haven : ©1996 New Haven [Conn.] : c1996 New Haven, CT : 1996 New Haven, CT : c1996 New Haven, CT : 1996 |
Subjects: |
Summary: | Working mothers today confront not only conflicting demands on their time and energy but also conflicting ideas about how they are to behave: they must be nurturing and unselfish while engaged in child rearing but competitive and ambitious at work. As more and more women enter the workplace, it would seem reasonable for society to make mothering a simpler and more efficient task Working mothers today confront not only conflicting demands on their time and energy but also conflicting ideas about how they are to behave: they must be nurturing and unselfish while engaged in child rearing but competitive and ambitious at work. As more and more women enter the workplace, it would seem reasonable for society to make mothering a simpler and more efficient task. Instead, Sharon Hays points out in this original and provocative book, an ideology of "intensive mothering" has developed that only exacerbates the tensions working mothers face. Drawing on ideas about mothering since the Middle Ages, on contemporary child-rearing manuals, and on in-depth interviews with mothers from a range of social classes, Hays traces the evolution of the ideology of intensive mothering - an ideology that holds the individual mother primarily responsible for child rearing and dictates that the process is to be child-centered, expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labor-intensive, and financially expensive. Hays argues that these ideas about appropriate mothering stem from a fundamental ambivalence about a system based solely on the competitive pursuit of individual interests. In attempting to deal with our deep uneasiness about self-interest, we have imposed unrealistic and unremunerated obligations and commitments on mothering, making it into an opposing force, a primary field on which this cultural ambivalence is played out Drawing on ideas about mothering since the Middle Ages, on contemporary child-rearing manuals, and on in-depth interviews with mothers from a range of social classes, Hays traces the evolution of the ideology of intensive mothering - an ideology that holds the individual mother primarily responsible for child rearing and dictates that the process is to be child-centered, expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labor-intensive, and financially expensive Hays argues that these ideas about appropriate mothering stem from a fundamental ambivalence about a system based solely on the competitive pursuit of individual interests. In attempting to deal with our deep uneasiness about self-interest, we have imposed unrealistic and unremunerated obligations and commitments on mothering, making it into an opposing force, a primary field on which this cultural ambivalence is played out Instead, Sharon Hays points out in this original and provocative book, an ideology of "intensive mothering" has developed that only exacerbates the tensions working mothers face |
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Item Description: | This WorldCat-derived record is shareable under Open Data Commons ODC-BY, with attribution to OCLC |
Physical Description: | xv, 252 p. : ill. ; 25 cm xv, 252 p. ; 24 cm xv, 252 p. ; 25 cm xv, 252 pages ; 24 cm xv, 252 pages ; 25 cm |
Awards: | American Sociological Association Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award, honorable mention, 1998 |
Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-244 ) and index Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-244) and index Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-244) and index Includes bibliographical references and index |
ISBN: | 0300066821 (alk. paper) 0300066821 0300076525 (pbk.) 0300076525 9780300066821 (alk. paper) 9780300066821 9780300076523 (pbk.) 9780300076523 |