Doing good motherhood: Creating their own responsible single mother model

Herbst-Debby, Anat

doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2018.06.002

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Both the construction of good mother ideals (Hayes, 1998; Jensen, 2018; Smart, 1996) and stigmatisation of lone mothers (Carabine, 2001; Carroll, 2017) are well recognised sociologically. Whereas lone mothers’ negotiations of good mother ideals have been documented (Duncan and Edwards, 1999; Elliot et al, 2015; Herbst-Debby, 2018; May, 2008), this article makes a valuable conceptual contribution by introducing ‘good lone motherhood’ as a distinct maternal identity that has not been explicitly articulated in previous examinations. Identification of good lone motherhood arose from analysis of data from comparative, qualitative research involving a diverse sample of women in two locations in the north of England with contrasting socio-economic profiles (Carroll, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…A rich body of research has targeted lone mothers’ negotiation of good mother ideals (see, for example, Herbst-Debby, 2018; May, 2008) and explored their reflexivity in relation to paid work, local labour markets and welfare (see, for example, Duncan and Edwards, 1999; Klett-Davies, 2005). May (2008) illustrates how ‘being a good mother’ is closely entwined with ‘presenting a moral self’ in narratives of women in Finland.…”

Section: Why ‘Good Lone Motherhood’?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘I’m Mum and Dad in One, Basically’: Doing and Displaying ‘Good Lone Motherhood’

Carroll

Yeadon‐Lee

2021

Sociology

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Popular discourse continues to equate ‘good’ motherhood with middle class, heterosexual coupledom and lone motherhood with dysfunctionality, despite ever-increasing diversity in family life. Drawing on interviews with lone mothers in two locations in the north of England, this article introduces the concept of ‘good lone motherhood’ to capture a process whereby women internalise nuclear family ideology while simultaneously resisting stigma and taking pride in their achievements in fulfilling practical and emotional demands of lone parenting. Application of a family practices framework is expanded through insights into what ‘doing’ good lone motherhood entails in everyday life and how it is ‘displayed’ to different audiences. Taking a comparative approach involving women in areas with contrasting socio-economic profiles highlights the contextual nature of display. Analysis of agential reflexivity and structural constraints demonstrates ways in which gender and class disadvantages can undermine capacity to ‘successfully’ convey a positive maternal identity.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Why ‘Good Lone Motherhood’?mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I’m Mum and Dad in One, Basically’: Doing and Displaying ‘Good Lone Motherhood’

Carroll

Yeadon‐Lee

2021

Sociology

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“…Backett-Milburn, Airey, McKie, and Hogg (2008, p. 157) found that a “family comes first” discourse was very strong among their sample of U.K. mothers working in food retailing, as a way for the women to reconcile the demands of being both good mothers and good workers. Herbst-Debby (2018, p. 157) argues that the lone mothers in her study of welfare-to-work in Israel “give their own meaning to how to do good motherhood and what is right for their children’s wellbeing”. The mothers not only value and are committed to paid work but also define themselves as responsible citizens by placing emphasis on protecting their children and acting as role models.…”

Section: Lone Mothers Welfare and Work In The United Kingdommentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Responsibility and Activation for Lone Mothers in the United Kingdom

Millar

2018

American Behavioral Scientist

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Lone mothers make up a quarter of all families with children in the United Kingdom and have been one of the key target groups for activation policies for the past two decades. In a relatively short period of time, the U.K. system has changed from treating lone mothers as carers to treating them as workers. Most lone mothers are now required to seek work, or to be in work, in order to be eligible for state support. These developments place self-responsibility at the center of welfare reform and paid work as the core of self-responsibility. The focus is very much on the individuals and their labor market obligations and downplays their social obligations, for example, to care for their children or other family members. The capacity to make choices about when and how much to engage in paid work is much reduced. This article explores what these developments have meant for lone mothers in the United Kingdom. The first main section outlines the key policy approaches and measures, highlighting the underpinning concepts of self-responsibility. The discussion also explores the experiences of lone mothers in relation to these policies, drawing on data from a long-term qualitative study. The second main section focuses on a new policy development—the introduction of Universal Credit—in which promoting an employment-based self-responsibility is unequivocally central to the policy aims and design.

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“…This is reflected in research investigating how low-income mothers in Israel maneuver between seemingly contradictory dictates of neoliberalism and motherhood between care work and paid work. The findings reveal the ways by which these mothers mobilize elements of the neoliberal discourse and at the same time challenge it by entwining it with the maternal discourse to create their own model of the good mother (e.g., Lavee, 2016 ; Meler, 2016 ; Sa’ar, 2016 ; Herbst-Debby, 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“I Kind of Want to Want”: Women Who Are Undecided About Becoming Mothers

2022

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This study focuses on women who define themselves as being undecided about becoming mothers. It addresses the question of how these women navigate their lives between two main conflicting cultural directives and perceptions: pronatalism and familism entwined in perception of linear time on one hand; and individualism and its counterpart, the notion of flexible liquid society, on the other. The research is based on group meetings designated for these women, which were facilitated by the first author. Ten women participated in the study—of whom, most were heterosexual, half were single, and half were partnered. Data were collected using (1) questionnaires completed during individual interviews that preceded the group encounter; (2) transcripts of the discussions held during the ten group sessions; and (3) questions regarding the status of the women’s doubts about motherhood asked 4 years after participating in the group. Our findings expand the existing typology of women’s reproductive decision-making, and demonstrate how categories that are commonly perceived as binary intersect when one challenges the rigid classifications of “active decisions” and “passive decisions”; “motherhood” and “non-motherhood,” and “want to be a mother” and “do not want to be a mother.” The findings also suggest that after becoming mothers, women can change their maternal status from “non-mother” to “mother,” yet still continue to view themselves as indecisive regarding motherhood. Based on our findings, we will argue that while indecisiveness about motherhood derives from individualized neoliberal rhetoric, it simultaneously undermines that same rhetoric and contradicts the injunction to “know, to decide, to strive.” It opposes the expectation in post-feminist discourse, that women will make choices about their bodies and exert them, while also opposing the pronatalist rhetoric, and the temporal linear discourse positing that women should “move forward” toward motherhood along with the ticking of the “biological clock.” Whereas some women sought to resolve their indecisiveness, other women found that the indecisiveness leaves all options open in a manner that expands their boundaries of autonomy in a society that seeks to limit it.

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Doing good motherhood: Creating their own responsible single mother model

Cited by 13 publications

References 42 publications

‘I’m Mum and Dad in One, Basically’: Doing and Displaying ‘Good Lone Motherhood’

‘I’m Mum and Dad in One, Basically’: Doing and Displaying ‘Good Lone Motherhood’

Self-Responsibility and Activation for Lone Mothers in the United Kingdom

“I Kind of Want to Want”: Women Who Are Undecided About Becoming Mothers

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