Motherhood
Contemporary Transitions and Generational Change

Explores the experiences of first-time mothers across two generations, illuminating key social changes and identifying what remains unchanged and why.

Tina Miller (Author)

9781009413312, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 November 2023

196 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 1.5 cm, 0.45 kg

'[A] must-read volume for scholars and parents navigating their own transitions into parenthood. … Essential.' A. J. Hattery, CHOICE

As the competing demands of care and paid work become increasingly complex, has there ever been a more challenging time to be a woman and a mother? Comparing two studies conducted across two generations, Motherhood explores women's experiences of becoming first-time mothers. Through richly narrated, real-time accounts of transition, Tina Miller examines what has changed since her original study was conducted twenty-one years ago. Using sociological and feminist perspectives, she analyses how motherhood has further intensified against a harsher neoliberal backdrop. The book examines the social, political and moral contours in which motherhood is situated which, in the contemporary context, include ideas of planned labours and work/life balance as part of potent, maternal prenatal imaginings. Birth continues to change everything, and the qualitative, longitudinal and comparative data show these ideas to be, mostly, illusory.

Introduction
1. Becoming a mother: generational shifts and narrative research
2. Anticipating motherhood: the antenatal period
3. Making sense of early mothering experiences
4. A return to normal: becoming the 'expert'?
5. Mothering experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic
6. Conclusions and reflections
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ]