Naslov
Has feminism betrayed motherhood?

Autori
Ott Franolić, Marija

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
Feminisms in Transnational Perspective 2016 : Reclaiming the Future. Feminist Engagements for the 21st Century

Mjesto i datum
Dubrovnik, Hrvatska, 16.05.2016. - 20.05.2016

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
feminism; motherhood

Sažetak
In Western society women and men mostly have the same educational trajectory and both men and women freely choose partners and jobs, but at one point in their lives many women decide to become mothers. How does feminism treat this difference? Motherhood is surprisingly rarely written about and debated in feminist theory. It is almost as if feminism cannot escape its early efforts to step away from earlier forms of Western thought which insisted on defining women primarily through biology and to make room for women's other achievements in society. Motherhood is undergoing serious threats, since mothers are often the first to feel the effects of economic crisis. Motherhood makes women vulnerable in the labor market, but it also changes their perspective. It is precisely through motherhoodd or the fact of not being a mother that many women realize the true constraints of a womanis situation. Motherhood should not be seen as the essentialist or prescriptive norm for women, but the fact that mothers in our society share a similar situaton has to be addressed. It is therefore necessary to return to Simone de Beauvoir's La Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex). It is in this feminist classic that biology has a vast influence on women's situation, even though, paradoxically, de Beauvoir sees motherhood as threatening to women's identity. As feminists, we have a responsibility to ask questions that could affect the future of women's lives, and through a rereading of The Second Sex we can change the way we look at women and their situation and imagine different lives for them in the future. Since the 90s, the feminist movement has been preoccupied with identity questions - how to define femininity and who can speak about women's issues. The result is the fragmentation and depolicization of the woman question. In my view, motherhood is one of the fundamental concepts that can make us rethink women as a collective group.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

POVEZANOST RADA