“Personal Responsibility” and the End of Welfare as We Know It

Williams, Helene

doi:10.1017/s1049096516002870

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Senator Josh Hawley noted that her children, seated behind her during the hearing in a republican motherhood tableau, were behaving well, and he asked if Barrett and her husband could share parenting tips. The inclusion of Barrett's husband Jesse in discussions of parenting and family life demonstrated a shift in the republican script, as "responsible fathers" involved in raising children are increasingly associated with ideal heteronuclear family life (Williams 2017). Co-parenting has become a new vehicle for fulfilling republican motherhood's charge of raising virtuous and self-sufficient children-as-future citizens, a category increasingly inclusive of girls as a result of feminist activism.…”

Section: A "Profoundly Devoted Mother" Joins the Courtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Just Mothering: Amy Coney Barrett and the Racial Politics of American Motherhood

Williams

2021

Laws

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Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination and confirmation featured frequent references to her role as a mother. This article situates these references within the trajectory of American political development to demonstrate how motherhood operates as a mechanism for enforcing a white-centered racial order. Through a close analysis of both the history of politicized motherhood as well as Barrett’s nomination and confirmation hearings, I make a series of claims about motherhood and contemporary conservatism. First, conservatives stress the virtuousness of motherhood through a division between public and private spheres that valorizes the middle-class white mother. Second, conservatives emphasize certain mothering practices associated with the middle-class white family. Third, conservatives leverage an epistemological claim about the universality of mothering experiences to universalize white motherhood. Finally, this universalism obscures how motherhood operates as a site in which power distinguishes between good and bad mothers and allocates resources accordingly. By attending to what I call the “republican motherhood script” operating in contemporary conservatism, I argue that motherhood is an ideological apparatus for enforcing a racial order premised on white protectionism.

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Section: A "Profoundly Devoted Mother" Joins the Courtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Just Mothering: Amy Coney Barrett and the Racial Politics of American Motherhood

Williams

2021

Laws

Self Cite

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“…Also, the reasons for this turn are analyzed from different perspectives that identify neoliberal (Pyysiäinen, Halpin, & Guilfoyle, 2017) or emancipatory forces (perhaps combined with neoliberalism; Fraser, 2013). Some studies put the emphasis on the players involved, on their interests and power: for example, the United Nations (Bexell & Jönsson, 2016), the European Union (Kramer, 2016), national governments (Williams, 2017), or industry (Mejia et al, 2014). Hardly any issue touches so many disciplines as does the notion of self-responsibility.…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Turn Toward Self-Responsibility in Current Societies: Differences, Challenges, and Perspectives

Frericks

Höppner

2018

American Behavioral Scientist

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Current societies have undergone a many-faceted but also general turn toward selfresponsibility. This is hardly contested, as shown by societal analyses of different kinds. Up to now though, the literature on self-responsibility has either focused on specific areas of society or hardly discussed the concept in sociological depth. In this special issue, we aim to do both. From a broad sociological and societal perspective the special issue analyses differences and communalities in the turn toward self-responsibility and highlights the challenges and perspectives it presents. The aim is a new discussion of the concept of self-responsibility that draws on actors' embeddedness in institutional environments and emphasizes the consequences of the development for individuals and societies.

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“Personal Responsibility” and the End of Welfare as We Know It

Cited by 2 publications

References 1 publication

Just Mothering: Amy Coney Barrett and the Racial Politics of American Motherhood

Just Mothering: Amy Coney Barrett and the Racial Politics of American Motherhood

The Turn Toward Self-Responsibility in Current Societies: Differences, Challenges, and Perspectives

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