The Politics of Motherhood and Mothering

 Excerpt from 

Resisting Gendered Citizenship: The Politics of Colonialism, Nationalism, and Maternalism in India

https://riverapublications.com/article/resisting-gendered-citizenship-the-politics-of-colonialism-nationalism-and-maternalism-in-india

In many indigenous societies, women's reproductive capacity is imagined as a source of power that shapes their status and identity. While rejecting the notions of male supremacy, these societies view maternity as a positive and empowering experience. In Myth, Religion and Mother's Rights, JJ Bachofen (1967) explores the idea of matriarchal clans where mother's rights are central. These societies embody the concept of maternal rule, where women are considered influential matriarchs, and lineage is traced through them.

Thapar (2023) noted that matriarch societies existed in certain Indian regions, as evidenced by practices of bride price and the worship of mother goddesses as the symbol of power or Shakti. Further, the report Towards Equality (CSWI Report, 1974) observed the presence of matrilineal communities in North East and South West of India, particularly in Meghalaya, Assam, Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. In some areas, matrilineal societies continue to thrive today. For instance, matriliny exists among the Khasi tribe in Meghalaya, where women hold significant roles in public spaces, although patriarchy works subtly (Rathnayake, 2021).

In contrast, within patriarchal societies, several scholars have distinguished between oppressive motherhood and feminist mothering. Fineman (1991) describes male-dominated motherhood as "a colonized concept" where a woman’s experience is defined and shaped by regressive principles. Rich (1976), in Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, argues that patriarchal motherhood is a reductive social construct imposed to control women. It fails to acknowledge the complex women’s experiences, reducing them to vessels or containers to produce babies. This subjugation of female reproductive tasks is evident in many traditional societies, where a child's identity is legally and customarily tied to the paternal family.

Patriarchal motherhood otherizes women by appropriating their roles, identities, and contributions. For centuries, societal prejudices have minimized women’s efforts co-opted their achievements, erased their contributions, and given credit to men. Consequently, women’s work is appropriated in the guise of the "father" of science, the "father" of the Constitution, the "father" of literature, and so on. This misogynistic framework relies on paternal principles to erase a woman’s role under the pretext of sacrifices for her children, family, community, and nation. Additionally, this masculine approach ignores the fact that wars, violence, trauma, and suffering are primarily the result of male-dominated decisions in contrast to the feminist principles that focus on peace, justice, and care.

Nevertheless, several feminist scholars have demonstrated that focusing on motherhood prioritizes the role of women as caregivers, not as citizens endowed with economic, political, and social rights (Dietz, 1985; Phillips, 1991). In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir argued that the idealization of motherhood discourages women from pursuing meaningful careers and personal advancement. Additionally, caregiving is associated with women’s invisible labour leading to their exploitation (Tronto, 1993). Moreover, in capitalist economies, women are increasingly forced to choose between their careers and maternal roles (Kadoglou and Sarri, 2013). Caught between the demands of family, work, and motherhood, they struggle to break through the glass ceiling and face the penalties of motherhood (Kahn et al., 2014).

However, this debate on women’s economic rights being overshadowed by maternalism often overlooks the situations of pecuniary compulsion faced by women in Third World countries. In these contexts, women as mothers and subalterns, are compelled by their specific circumstances to ensure the survival of their families while also advocating for their rights. Trapped by the constraints of marriage and motherhood, with limited education or employment opportunities and no available support, for many, maternalism is not a matter of choice. In situations of absence of a husband due to illness, divorce, abandonment, or death, they were forced to fend for themselves and their children (Nigam, 2024a). This agency was evident in cases like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and many similar situations described below. In such circumstances, motherhood moves beyond the private sphere and into the public domain, transforming into empowered mothering where the personal becomes political.

Moreover, in the context of Black mothers as caregivers, bell hooks (1984) argued that the early criticisms of maternalism by white feminists were unfair, as they excluded a large segment of women from the feminist movement. This narrow constriction of feminism affected poor and non-white women because mothering served as a site of positive affirmation for them. By condemning maternalism, these feminist perspectives overlooked how it could serve as a source of strength and identity for marginalized women. She explained,

“At the beginning of the feminist movement, feminists were harsh critics of mothering, pitting that task against careers which were deemed more liberating, more self-affirming. However, as early as the mid-'80s some feminist thinkers were challenging the feminist devaluation of motherhood and the overvaluation of work outside the home.” (Hooks, 2000: 76)

Furthermore, Hooks (1984) illustrated how Black mothers redefined family work as humanizing labour, which affirms a woman's identity as a caring individual. She argued that feminist mothering can be liberating, positive, and revolutionary. While work can provide financial independence, she explained that the capitalist culture fosters sexism, competition, antagonism, and alienation. It fails to meet deeper human needs. She emphasized that women’s liberation cannot be found solely while pursuing economic independence but through reclaiming the value of caregiving.

O’Reilly (2008) in Feminist Mothering has deconstructed mothering from a wider perspective to explain the concepts of feminist and empowered mothering. According to her, the former resists and refuses patriarchal motherhood while the latter widens its scope to focus on a mother’s position of agency, authority, and autonomy. Maternalism, therefore, is viewed as a site for activism, where mothers fulfill their selfhood through work, activism, friendships, relationships, and hobbies by involving the larger networks to make it compatible with paid employment. O'Reilly (2004) explained that feminist mothering dismantles patriarchal narratives to create space for counter-narratives of maternalism. She introduced the term "matricentric feminism," based on women’s agency as mothers (O’Reilly, 2016).

Hence, different from patriarchal motherhood, feminist mothering is a complex and multifaceted concept that prioritizes inclusion and justice. Embedded in the maternal framework, it is dynamic, emancipatory, and can be a site for feminist activism (Roberts, 1993). Collins (2000) elaborated on Black mothers’ experiences to demonstrate that mothering is a political category. Feminist mothering is entrenched in feminist consciousness and focuses on preservation, growth, and acceptability. It is a key to social change capable of transforming family and society (Chodorow, 1978; Ruddick, 1989). Hence, an inclusive feminist theory must consider women’s diverse experiences, specifically in post-colonial societies, which entails explicit nuances considering the socio-economic and political context.

 

Motherhood is a powerful virtue. However, in a patriarchal society, it is construed narrowly to uphold the heteronormative family norms which prioritize men over women. This traditional framework overlooks the diverse family forms and alienates female-headed households. Rather, families headed by lone mothers are chastened and labelled as broken, pathological, and degenerative. Despite constitutional guarantees of equality and justice, the state and society alienate them, deny them visibility, and absolve themselves of the responsibilities of protecting their citizenship rights. Nevertheless, for ages, single mothers, despite all hardships, have been defying patriarchal norms and are bringing up their children solely, with little support available from their families, society, or the state. Rather, they are challenging the dominant and hegemonic `male breadwinner and the provider’ model. This work examines this active and empowered notion of motherhood, or feminist and emancipatory mothering while focusing on how lone mothers are redefining and reshaping the socio-cultural norms to pave the social transformation through their maternal activism. With the increase in the number of female-headed households, this work recommends the need for an alternative approach to disrupt the dominant themes of victimhood, poverty, destitution, and neglect by deploying the axis of intersectionality. It suggests that the state needs to evolve a comprehensive empowerment framework to specifically recognize the entitlements of single mothers as citizens and take steps to advance their citizenship rights.