'The lives of women are inextricably linked to the well-being of children. If they are not educated, if they are not healthy, if they are not empowered, the children are the ones who suffer.' (UNICEF report, 2006) The study this book is based upon was of a pioneering facilitating programme enabling low-income mothers with little to no outside support to attend college or university. The women's stories are told in their own words and are used to explore the importance of education as a way to improve their and their children's lives. The book begins with an engaging Foreword from Rosemary H. Balsam, FRCPsych (London), MRCP (Edinburgh), Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Yale Medical School. Followed by the author's introduction, the book is then split into three parts. Part I sets the background of the study itself and of Western societal attitudes towards single mothers over the centuries. Mary Kay O'Neil also investigates common maternal tasks, the effect of parental and relational experiences, the life impact of becoming a mother, and the various influences on the decision mother alone. Part II considers the characteristics basic to effective mothering: resilience, autonomy, and caring. In the light of the author's interest in women's development, Part III explores the psychodynamic understanding of mothers alone without resources, and outlines society's role in providing the opportunity for them to become successful mothers. The parts are followed by an Afterword to summarise what was learned through the women's generous openness and to suggest societal improvements for increased opportunity. The book closes with two Appendices. The first tells the story of O'Neil's mother, who also mothered alone. The second delivers the research findings of the study for those interested in learning more. This clearly written book underlines the UNICEF statement above and does much to engage with the debate on support for those most vulnerable members of society.

Dr. Andrea O'Reilly is internationally recognized as the founder of Motherhood Studies (2006) and its subfield Maternal Theory (2007), and creator of the concept of Matricentric Feminism, a feminism for and about mothers (2016) and Matricritics, a literary theory and practice for a reading of mother-focused texts (2021). With this collection O'Reilly continues the conversation on the meaning and nature of motherhood initiated by Adrienne Rich in Of Woman Born close to fifty years ago. In In (M)other Words, O'Reilly shares 25 of her chapters and articles published between 2009-2024 to examine the oppressive and empowering dimensions of mothering and to explore motherhood as institution, experience, subjectivity, and empowerment. The collection considers the central themes and theories of motherhood studies including normative motherhood, feminist mothering, maternal regret, matricentric pedagogy, young mothers, academic motherhood, matricentric feminism, matricritics, motherhood and feminism, the motherhood memoir, the twenty-first-century motherhood movement, mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, pandemic mothering, and the motherline.

Reclaiming Home, Remembering Motherhood, Rewriting History: African American and Afro-Caribbean Women’s Literature in the Twentieth Century offers a critical valuation of literature composed by black female writers and examines their projects of reclamation, rememory, and revision. As a collection, it engages black women writers’ efforts to create more inclusive conceptualizations of community, gender, and history, conceptualizations that take into account alternate lived and written experiences as well as imagined futures. Contributors to this collection probe the realms of gender studies, postcolonialism, and post-structural theory and suggest important ways in which to explore connections between home, motherhood, and history across the multifarious narratives of African American and Afro-Caribbean experiences. Together they argue that it is through their female characters that black women writers demonstrate the tumultuous processes of deciphering home and homeland, of articulating the complexities of mothering relationships, and of locating their own personal history within local and national narratives. Essays gathered in this collection consider the works of African American women writers (Pauline Hopkins, Toni Morrison, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Audre Lorde, Lalita Tademy, Lorene Cary, Octavia Butler, Zora Neale Hurston, and Sherley Anne Williams) alongside the works of black women writers from the Caribbean (Jamaica Kincaid and Gisèle Pineau), Guyana (Grace Nichols), and Cuba (María de los Reyes Castillo Bueno).

Mothering Mennonite marks the first scholarly attempt to incorporate religious groundings in interpretations of motherhood. The essays included here broaden our understanding of maternal identity as something not only constructed within the family and by society at large, but also influenced significantly by historical traditions and contemporary belief systems of religious communities. A multidisciplinary compilation of essays, this volume joins narrative and scholarly voices to address both the roles of mothering in Mennonite contexts and the ways in which Mennonite mothering intersects with and is shaped by the world at large. Contributors address cultural constructions of motherhood within ethnoreligious Mennonite communities, examining mother-daughter relationships and intergenerational influences, analyzing visual and literary representations of Mennonite mothers, challenging cultural constructions and expectations of motherhood, and tracing the effects of specific religious and cultural contexts on mothering in North and South America.’

In the last decade the topic of motherhood has emerged as a distinct and established field of scholarly inquiry. A cursory review of motherhood research reveals that hundreds of scholarly articles have been published on almost every motherhood theme imaginable. The first ever on the topic, this Encyclopedia of Motherhood helps to both demarcate motherhood as a scholarly field and an academic discipline and to direct its future development. With more than 700 entries, these three volumes provide information on the central terms, concepts, topics, issues, themes, debates, theories, and texts of this new discipline. Further, the encyclopedia examines the topic of motherhood in various contexts such as history and geography and by academic discipline. Key Features Provides an overview of the topic of motherhood in many and diverse disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, psychology and philosophy Examines the meaning and experience of motherhood in many time periods from classic civilizations to present day Includes an entry for all the influential theorists of maternal scholarship from the pioneering theories to the more recent writings Covers issues and events of our current times including entries on the mommy blog, the motherhood memoir, terrorism, reproductive technologies, HIV/AIDS, and LGBT families Explores geographical, cultural, and ethnic diversity with an entry for almost every country in the world as well as entries on lesbian, immigrant, adoptive, single, nonresidential, young, poor mothers and mothers with disabilities Key Themes History of Motherhood Issues in Motherhood Motherhood and Family Motherhood and Health Motherhood and Society Motherhood Around the World Motherhood in the United States Motherhood Studies Prominent Mothers In human society, few institutions are as important as motherhood, and this unique encyclopedia captures the interdisciplinary foundation of the subject in one convenient reference. The scope of the Encyclopedia of Motherhood is focused on providing a comprehensive resource to understanding the complexities of motherhood for academic and public libraries, written by scholars and institutional experts in the social and behavioral sciences.