Feminism and Stay-at-Home-Motherhood: Some Critical Reflections and Implications for Mothers on Social Assistance

Authors

  • Lynne Marks University of Victoria

Keywords:

Economic vulnerability, Feminism - History, Feminist theory, First-wave feminism, Homemakers, Mootherhood, Social constructionism, Welfare recipients

Abstract

Feminism has not dealt adequately with issues of stay-at-home motherhood. Most feminists have seen the only solution for mothers' economic vulnerability as being decent paid work and adequate daycare. This ignores the real desires of some women to remain home with young children, alienating many mothers from feminism and failing to provide useful analysis to support those mothers on social assistance now being forced into the workforce by the welfare "reforms" of neo-liberal governments.

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Author Biography

Lynne Marks, University of Victoria

Lynne Marks teaches Canadian women's history at the University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia. She has published in the areas of women's, gender and religious history and the history of social welfare. She is currently collaborating on a comparative study of recent "welfare reform" in Ontario and BC. She is also the mother of a six year old.

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Published

2004-04-01

Issue

Vol. 28 No. 2 (2004): Special Issue: Never Done: The Challenge of Unpaid Work

Section

Original Research

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