num_pages: 256
description: This volume explores the diverse contexts, meanings and experiences of mothering, and reveals how these intersect with prevailing social constructions and ideologies about `normal′ or `ideal′ motherhood. 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 disab
language: English
title: Motherhood: Meanings, Practices and Ideologies
publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd