Maternal activism in comparative perspective: Past, present, and future

Abstract

This essay offers a comparative assessment of past and present contributions to the study of maternal activism within feminist scholarship broadly understood while also providing some thoughts about its future directions. While typically defined as adopting a maternal frame to pursue a social or political cause, this essay posits maternal activism as an evolving and contested field of inquiry. I start this analysis by discussing early critiques of motherhood as a patriarchal institution within liberal feminism and other competing frameworks that conceive maternalism as a distinct modality of thought and action. I then underscore the evolving character of the field by examining scholarly works on Black, Indigenous, and Latin American maternal activism. Building upon past and present analyses, and in line with their evolving character, I formulate a provisional definition of maternal activism as a caretaking function sustained through direct action inside and outside the household and beyond that activist-scholars interested in exploring future directions of maternal activism can engage and re-envision. This essay contributes to existing analyses by highlighting the transformative character of maternal activism scholarship.

Uncovering the Transformative Labor in Black Women's Community Work

“…While we apply this framework to Black women's community work, it has strong analytic potential for examining the community work of other racialized women. As discussed earlier, Indigenous, Latinx/Chicanx, and Black women share some similarities in their community activist practices (Orozco Mendoza, 2023; Shadaan, 2020). Non-Black women of color may also encounter racial and systemic oppression that shifts their work toward the social reproductive end of the spectrum.…”

“…Community [other]motherwork is not exclusively Black. Indigenous and Latinx scholars have highlighted communal mothering practices within their respective cultures and also emphasize extending notions of mothering and familial care work beyond blood-related children (Orozco Mendoza, 2023; Shadaan, 2020). What distinguishes these mothering practices is not so much who is mothering or mothered, but rather the racial politics and legacies that differentiate them.…”

“…Anna Chatillon and Beth E. Schneider (2018) write, “Through intersecting systems of oppression based on race and gender, the state marginalizes Black mothers, denigrating and at times criminalizing their right, ability, and capacity to care for children.” Black women and mothers, often driven by their unique standpoint, “have built alternative forms of struggle as sites of resistance in response to structural oppressions, including the household, neighborhood, and community” (Orozco Mendoza, 2023, p. 6). Adrienne L. Edwards (2022) uses the term “Black political motherwork” to refer to the civic engagement of Black women in organizing against voter suppression and serving as elected officials.…”

“…For example, Patricia Hill Collins (2000) notes, “Whereas prevailing academic approaches fragment social life by separating paid work from social reproduction, activism from mothering, and family from community, the ideas and actions of Black women community workers challenge these arrangements” (p. 221). Examples of Black women's community work that transgress these dichotomies include [other]motherwork (Chatillon & Schneider, 2018; Collins, 1987; Lawson 2018), activism (Banks, 2020; Edwards, 2022; Orozco Mendoza, 2023; Shadaan, 2020), mutual aid (Gordon Nembhard, 2014; Reese & Johnson, 2022), and social and human services work (Bent-Goodley et al, 2017; Gilkes, 1983). While the community work of Indigenous and Chicanx/Latinx women also blurs the public-private sphere binary (Shadaan, 2020) and exists within multiple economies, Black women's community work and activism is uniquely shaped by anti-Black oppression and violence.…”