Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)

Nelson, Bonnie A.

Book Reviews 
their bodies as animals, machines, and sources of spiritual power. Pain is seen 
as uncontrollable, intermixed with pleasure, something to be endured, some- 
thing that can be overcome, and a source of enlightenment. Klassen is careful 
to explore both the potentially harmful and the potentially liberating ways 
home-birthing women make sense of their childbirth experiences. The final 
chapter explores the political significance ofwomen's choices about childbirth. 
BlessedEvents will appeal most to those in the alternative birth movement, 
but it will be of interest to anyone committed to exploring female embodied 
experience, as well as those interested in relations between religion and 
spirituality. While the interviews themselves are intriguing and Klassen writes 
clearly, the bookis sophisticated theoretically and will be most fully appreciated 
by those fascinated by how the experiences of home-birthing women both 
reflect and shape politics, culture, and religion. 
Mothering Daughters: 
Novels and the Politics of Family Romance, 
Francis Burney to Jane Austen 
Greenfield, Susan. 
Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2002. 
Reviewed by Bonnie A. Nelson 
In Mothering Daughters, Susan Greenfield offers illuminating interpretations 
of Evelina, The Italian, Wrongs of Woman, Belinda, Adeline Mowbray, and 
Emma and argues that these early novels emphasize "the centrality of mother- 
child attachment and ultimate separation that psychoanalysis inherited" (20). 
She also explores such topics as breastfeeding debates, women's rights to child 
custody, and "the role of maternity in colonial and abolitionist discourses" (14). 
Greenfield connects the great resemblance of Evelina to her mother with 
the historical question of legitimacy. "The father has the lawful right to name 
the daughter, but the mother's imprint proves a more reliable record of 
marriage, kinship, and legitimacy" (37). Greenfield includes a fascinating 
discussion of "imaginationist" theories which erroneously "suggested that a 
mother's imagination and desire affected her child in utero, primarily in 
negative ways" (48). Burney, Greenfield argues, turns such theories upside 
down when Evelina, "through her uncanny resemblance to her mother . . . is 
able to correct the injustices perpetrated against both of them" (42). 
In "GothicMothers and Homoerotic Desire," Greenfield offers apsycho- 
analytic reading of The Italian, a work she believes "linger[s] on the daughter's 
physical desire for her parent" (57). Using the term "homoerotic" rather than 
198 1 Volume 5, Number 2 
Book Reviews 
"homosexual" because it is "descriptive" and does not "connote a form of 
modern sexual identity" (63), Greenfield examines the threat that mother- 
daughter love "poses to compulsory heterosexuality" (60). 
In her chapter on The Wrongs of Woman, a book that focuses "on the law, 
which discriminates against women of all classes and favors men by treating the 
female body and its offspring as male property" (86), Greenfield discusses the 
"politics of maternal breastfeedingn and how breastfeeding influenced the 
passage ofthe Infant Custody Bill (1839). "Supporters ofthe actrepeatedly drew 
on images of breastfeeding to demonstrate the naturalness of maternal custody 
rights" (84). Greenfield believes Maria's famous court defense "logically extended 
. . . might include a defense of the mother's right to child custody" (99). 
Greenfield explores "the rise of maternal ideals" in Opie'sAdeZine Mowbray; 
Or, The Mother and Daughter, and she examines "inadequate mothers," like 
Lady Delacour in Belinda and Mrs. Mowbray, and the necessity of surrogate 
mothers. Savanna, an escaped mulatto slave, is the surrogate in Opie's novel. 
"Though [Opie's] novel condemns slavery, it also suggests the value of 
importing West Indian women to England to perform the maternal and 
psychological work biological maternity cannot guarantee" (134). Savanna's 
role "prefigures the 'racialized history of child care' that grew out of colonial 
slavery" (134). 
"The Fbddle of Emma: Maternity and the Unconscious" best exemplifies 
Greenfield's general thesis that "the mother's absence highlights her indispen- 
sability" (13). Emma's "internal troubles . . . stem from thevery motherlessness 
nobody acknowledges as a problem" (146). "Though there are a wide variety of 
ways to account for Emma's mistakes," Greedeld believes that each mistake "can 
be explained as her unconscious reaction to her mother's absence" (153). Since the 
novel encourages readers "to understand Emma as she herself cannot, Emma 
might be said to anticipate the role of the modem psychotherapist" (153). 
Underpinning Greenfield's compelling analysis is a wealth of careful 
research. Her three approaches-historical, literary, and psychoanalytic--will 
appeal to scholars in a variety of disciplines. 
A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage 
Kephart, Beth. 
New York: William Morrow, 1998. 
Reviewed by Trudelle Thomas 
A Slant of Sun is a carefully crafted memoir by a mother who is coming to terms 
with her young child's developmental problems. As the book opens, Kephart is 
Journal ofthe Associationfor Research on Mothering / 199 


English

Mothering Daughters: Novels and the Politics of Family Romance, Francis Burney to Jane Austen

Mullin, Amy

Book Reviews 
This book gives a clear explanation of the differences between the 
philosophies of midwives and physicians. While midwives see birth as a natural 
process needing little intervention, physicians view birth as potentially danger- 
ous. Despite the sometimes uncooperative relations between midwives and 
medical doctors, Rooks explains the profound impact midwives have had on 
medical practitioners. The influence of midwives has led to the cessation of 
some medical practices that potentially caused harm to birthing mothers, such 
as shaving pubic hair and giving enemas to labouring women. 
Although she recognizes the role of obstetricians in complicated births, 
Rooks is convinced that midwiferyprovides safe, effective childbirth assistance. 
She notes, for example, that normal births attended by midwives result in fewer 
cesarean sections, fewer episiotomies and other expensive interventions. T o  
ensure appropriate care for birthing women, Rooks suggests that obstetricians 
and midwives alike assess all birth interventions. 
Various laws and the need for insurance coverage, as well as the dwindling 
number of births per thousand in America, provide disincentives for allowing 
midwives to practice in the United States. Physician supervision of midwives 
is required and hospital births are advantaged. As a result, it has been difficult 
for midwifery to gain a foothold in the United States, despite the data from 
Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan that strengthens the case 
for the use of midwives as safe birth attendants. 
Birth by Design: 
Pregnancy, Maternity Care, and Midwifery in 
North America and Europe 
Devries, Rayrnond, Cecilia Benoit, Edwin R. Van Teijlingen, 
and Sirpa Wrede, eds. 
New York: Routledge, 2001. 
Reviewed by Amy Mullin 
Birth by Design provides well-researched, cross-cultural comparisons of mater- 
nity care practices in nine European and North American countries, with a 
heavy emphasis on Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the 
United States. While the countries involved differ in the ways they fund health 
care, all are highly developed, technologically sophisticated countries. Most 
medical specialties in these countries are marked by technical uniformity, but 
the countries involved are markedly different in their approaches to maternity 
care. They differ in the extent to which they see pregnancy as a medical 
208 1 Volume 5, Number 1 
Book Reviews 
problem, in their attitudes toward and use of midwives, and in official 
government positions toward home birth and the rates of home birth. Cross- 
cultural comparisons allow the authors, who work in fields as diverse as 
medicine, history, sociology, anthropology, midwifery, and political science, to 
examine how and why maternal care reflects ideas about gender, sexuality, 
families, the organization of professions, government policies, and attitudes 
toward technology. 
The book is divided into three sections, allowing the authors to analyze 
maternity care at the macro level (investigating states and other groups as they 
seek to design maternal health services), meso level (studying professional 
groups that deliver services), and micro level. At the latter level, the authors 
investigate "two central themes: (1) the views of maternity clients on their 
access to and utilization of maternal health services and (2) the varied ways 
technology shapes the work of midwives and the experiences of birthing 
women" (201). Issues analyzed include responsibility for costs incurred during 
maternal health care, different models of educating midwives, and technologi- 
cal interventions during pregnancy and birth. 
The book is a fascinating account of different approaches to home and 
hospital birth. Readers learn about maternity protection laws that have existed 
in Germany for over a century, which have been connected both to feminist 
aims and to the eugenics movement. W e  hear midwives' attitudes toward 
prenatal testing based on their experiences with children born with disabilities 
and living in their communities. W e  learn why the Netherlands continues to 
have a relatively high rate of home birth, and how government policy in the 
United Kingdom has by turns opposed and supported home birth. 
My one disappointment is that scant attention is paid to the plans and 
desires of pregnant and birthing women. At the beginning of the last chapter 
the authors admit, 'We were well along in the planning of this book when it 
occurred to us that we had overlooked the most important actors in the drama 
ofbirth: mothers (to-be) and their families" (243). They excuse their oversight 
by arguing that women's desires are shaped by the alternatives presented to 
them, as much as or more than those desires shape the alternatives. However, 
while this is certainly true, the book would have been strengthened by some 
consideration of women's beliefs, desires, plans, and accounts of their experi- 
ences. Midwives' voices and experiences emerge far more clearly in this book 
than do the voices and experiences ofpregnant women. Despite these concerns, 
Birth by Design provides a well-researched, interdisciplinary examination of 
maternal health care services. 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering 1 209 


Birth by Design: Pregnancy, Maternity Care, and Midwifery in North America and Europe

Francis-Connolly, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Francis-Connolly 
Constructing Parenthood 
Portrayals of Motherhood 
and Fatherhood in Popular 
American Magazines 
Currently many family researchers view parenthood as a social construct 
(Thurer, 1994; Glenn, 1994; Phoenix, Woollett and Lloyd, 1991). Social 
construction refers to the process by which parenthood (mothering and 
fathering) is culturally definedwithin social, economic, and historical contexts 
(Apple and Golden, 1997). This construction process is affected by the 
environmental and social contexts in which we live and varies over time and 
across cohorts. According to social construction theory individuals receive 
cultural messages regarding the roles they should assume and how these roles 
might be fulfilled. These messages form discourses, which are ways of repre- 
senting phenomena in a visual, oral, or written form (Lupton and Barclay, 
1997). Social construction theory argues that the discourses represented in a 
society help construct the manner in which its members will think about and 
respond to a phenomenon. Thus, the meaning that people give to a particular 
phenomenon, in this case motherhood and fatherhood, is dependent upon the 
discourses portrayed within the culture. 
Parenting is a topic commonly discussed in the media particularly maga- 
zines, books, and television. Parents use these resources to shape their image of 
what a "good parent is, how a mother or father should behave, and how a 
"goodn child behaves. They construct an image of mothering and fathering 
through these media portrayals. Parenting magazines are becoming an increas- 
ingly popular source for parents to receive advice and information. These 
magazines are readily available and commonly line an entire shelf in bookstores. 
Magazines have advantages over books as they are easy to read and they are 
inexpensive as well as concise (Luke, 1994). Parents often receive subscriptions 
from family members or friends and rely on the magazines for reassurance that 
they are parenting the "right" way. 
Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering 1 179 
Elizabeth Francis-Connolly 
Interestingly few researchers have examined images of motherhood and 
fatherhood in popular magazines. Noted exceptions include Abhik, 1998; 
Book and Penttinen, 1997; Kaufman, 1999; Luke, 1994; and Skill and 
Robinson, 1994. Abhik (1998) studied the image of mothers in Indian 
television commercials. He argued that advertisements have the power to shape 
the opinions and behaviors of individuals and therefore may play a part in what 
he termed social reinforcement. Abhik's findings suggest that commercials do 
portray the dominant value system of the culture and present the idea that, to 
be a good mother, a woman should uphold these values. 
Luke (1994) examined the portrayal ofchildhood and parenting in popular 
culture. In her study she examined the images and text in American, Australian, 
and British parenting magazines. She too, argues that popular culture can 
reinforce behavior andvalues and that it can provide meaning to constructs such 
as motherhood and fatherhood. Luke's findings suggest that mothers are 
portrayed in a traditional role and fathers are rarely shown in a parenting role. 
Further, Luke found very few women and children of color pictured in the 
magazines. Similar to the Luke study, Book and Penttinen (1997) also found 
mothers and fathers portrayed in traditional roles in Finnish women's maga- 
zines. Kaufinan (1999) analyzed television commercials and found that caregiving 
of young children was the most common activity for mothers and the least 
common activity for fathers. Further, fathers are still being portrayed in the 
traditional "good provider" role. 
The purpose of the present study is to investigate the cultural image of 
parenting portrayed by popular American magazines. Specifically, I sought to 
determine how mothers and fathers are portrayed in both advertisements and 
magazine articles. Second, I examined whether there is a discrepancy between 
portrayals of parents of color and white parents in American magazine culture. 
Lastly, I questioned whether there was a difference in images of mothers and 
fathers in parenting magazines versus popular men and women's magazines. 
Research indicates that images or ideals of parenting shape the expectations 
and experiences of parents. Little is known about the images themselves. The 
goal of this study is to gain further understanding of parenthood and identify 
the images of parenthood that are portrayed in magazines. The results of this 
studywill give insight into the current cultural messages parents, especially new 
parents receive on what is considered good parenting. 
Methods 
Twelve American magazines were selected for analysis based on circula- 
tion rates. The top-selling seven parenting magazines, three women's maga- 
zines and two men's magazines were identified. I chose both parenting 
magazines as well as men's and women's magazines for comparison purposes. 
The September 2001 issues were purchased for the investigation both as 
convenience but also because fall magazine issues tend to be fdler/larger. 
Photographs and pictures, both in the advertisements and stories, were 
180 1 Volume 5, Number l 
Constructing Parenthood 
examined for 1) activities engaged in by children and parents; 2) gender of 
parents; and 3) ethnicity of the children and adults. Obviously, trying to 
identify ethnicity in a photograph is fraught with problems. Ethnicity is more 
than facial features and not clear-cut; thus the research team needed to make 
some assumptions. Adding to this dilemma many models are probably of mixed 
raciallethnic background. 
After thorough analysis, all the magazine article titles were identified and 
categorized into the following parenting activities: engagement in household 
activities (cleaning, cooking), caretaking (changing a diaper, feeding a child, 
tying a shoe), passive (holding), nurturing (snuggling-type interactions), 
playing (indoor and outdoor games), and teachinglreading. Descriptive statis- 
tics were used to determine the most common portrayals of mothers and fathers 
engaged in these various activities. 
The second area of analysis focused on the content of the magazine stories. 
Iwas curious as towhat the focus of stories would be andwhat current parenting 
issues were discussed. These articles too reflect current parenthood dilemmas 
and shape cultural images. Thus the titles of all stories in the magazines were 
also categorized into common subject areas. 
Results and discussion 
There were several interesting and unanticipated findings in this study. 
First, mothers were by far the most commonly portrayed (69 percent of all 
pictures) as compared to fathers (27 percent) andgrandparents (three percent). 
Please refer to Table A for the breakdown of activities by gender. The message 
from these magazines is loud and clear that parenting is mother's work. Further, 
women continue to be primarily portrayed in traditional mothering activities 
such as nurturing, passive, and caretaking roles. Past research findings indicate 
the tendency for couples to carry out more traditional marital roles as they 
transition to parenthood. Wives are responsible for doing a greater proportion 
of the household and childcare tasks while husbands remain in the breadwinner 
role (Hochschild, 1989; Aldous, Mulligan and Bjarnason, 1998). MacDermid, 
Huston, and McHale (1990) also found in their examination of the early years 
of marriage that wives spent more hours than their husbands doing housework 
and childcare activities and less time in paid employment. Conversely, there 
was no change in the time husbands spent in paid employment or housework. 
I had anticipated finding many pictures portraying the new age dad, a man 
who is nurturing and engages in caretaking activities while maintaining his 
masculinity. However, I was surprised that the data indicates that overall there 
are considerably fewer fathers pictured than mothers pictured. Further, the 
fathers were in somenurturing roles but a mich higher percentage 
of fathers were engaged in traditional roles of active play and sports (25 percent 
ofthe father pictures versus 8.6 percent of mothers). This perpetuates the myth 
of fathers being better equipped to engage in physical play while mothers are 
the nurturers and caretakers. 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering / 181 
Elizabeth Francis-Connolly 
182 1 Volume 5, Number l 
Constructing Parenthood 
Like the chicken and egg age-old question, I wonder if these magazine 
pictures represent a cultural ideal or do they shape the current cultural image of 
good parenting? I suspect both are true. Which leads me to question these 
cultural messages in an era when most women with small children work in paid 
employment outside of the home and many do not have a choice in this matter. 
How do women feel about their mothering? Past research indicates that most 
women grapple with issues ofwork, which is no wonder when they receive clear 
messages that they are the primary person to nurture and care for their children. 
Gender ideology theory provides some insights into this dilemma. Ac- 
cording to gender ideology theory, gender norms influence beliefs about the 
appropriateness of certain tasks and activities for women and men. Specific 
tasks are assigned according to these gender beliefs rather than the abilities of 
each partner (Aldous et al., 1998). Men are traditionally viewed as the 
breadwinners and thus immune from household and childcare responsibilities. 
In contrast, women are responsible for maintaining the household and caring 
for children. In this theory women are viewed as having essential traits for 
raising children. For example, women are considered more nurturing and 
caring than men are. Thus, women are better equipped to mother. This extreme 
essentialist view does not allow for variation. It does not consider that some 
women are more nurturing than others or that some men may be more 
nurturing than some women. 
Further, as Howard and Hollander (1997) point out, polarized gender 
ideology can be harmful in several ways. First, by viewing parenting as 
something only women do, men are not allowed to "experience sustained 
involvement and commitment to parenting" (34). In addition by assuming 
women are more caring and nurturing, women are set up to do all the parenting. 
They are assumed to know how to mother and to enjoy mothering. This 
gendered parenting stereotype contributes to a hierarchy disadvantaging both 
men and women. 
Gender ideology has remained intact despite women's entrance into the 
paid labor force (Hochschild, 1989). According to this theory, male participa- 
tion in household and childcare tasks will increase only when there is a shift in 
the belief system, for example, when both men and women are viewed as being 
capable of caring and nurturing. Clearly the messages from the magazine 
pictures and articles studied indicated that parenting is gendered. 
Another area explored in this study was to examine the ethnicity of people 
represented in the magazine pictures. Similar to Luke's (1994) study, I also 
found that the images in the parenting, women and men's magazines most 
commonly (80 percent) portray Caucasian people. See Table B for a breakdown 
of images by ethnicity. Of note, this study did not examine magazines 
specifically geared to minority populations, which presumably would have a 
much greater percentage of non-Caucasian images. 
Lastly, I examined the titles of magazine articles in an attempt to discern 
the issues and concerns highlighted in the parenting magazines and to 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering 1 183 
Elizabeth Francis- Connolly 
investigate whether parenting was a topic discussed in the women's and men's 
magazines. I grouped the most common subjects found in the parenting 
magazine articles according to the following: 1) normal childhood develop- 
ment;2) mother's health and fitness; 3) children's health and fitness; 4) cooking 
and food; 5) education and school issues; and 6) fashion, beauty and shopping. 
Of note, is that parenting was not a subject mentioned in any of the men's 
magazines but was a focus in all of the women's magazines. Magazine editors 
print what they perceive will help sell their magazines; clearly parenting is not 
a hot seller for men. 
In an earlier study (Francis-Connolly, 1999) I found that new mothers are 
often overwhelmed by parenting and are searching for the "right" answers. The 
women in that study lacked confidence in their mothering skills and sought 
reassurance from others that they had made the right parenting decisions. They 
actively sought the advice of trusted friends, family members, and health care 
professionals and regularly consulted books and subscribed to parenting 
magazines. From examination ofthe most common topic areas portrayed in the 
magazines, it is evident that child development, mother's and child's health are 
the areas of concern for women. 
Some limitations ofthis present study include that the data obtained from 
the magazines only represented one month. Thus, topics discussed in these 
magazines may show greater variation over time. It would be useful to study 
several months worth of magazine article topics to get a broader representation. 
However, I suspect pictures/images may have changed over the past several 
years and decades but we would see less variation over a period of a few months. 
As discussed earlier in this article, the researcher subjectivity in defining 
ethnicity of images portrayed in the magazine could be problematic. 
In conclusion, the images and content of popular magazines carry strong 
cultural messages about parenting. Clearly the group of people that read 
parenting magazines are especially vulnerable to the cultural messages por- 
trayed. This study provides insight into the cultural messages people receive 
from popular American magazines. It is evident that there is a clear message 
thatwomen remain the caretakers while fathers are less visible and enjoy the fun 
aspects of parenting young children, such as playing games and engaging in 
sport activities. These images remain despite women's entrance over two 
decades ago into the paid labor force, and the second wave women's movement. 
References 
Abhik, Roy. 1998. "Images ofDomesticity and Motherhood in Indian Televi- 
sion Commercials: A Critical Study." JournalofPopular Culture 32: 117- 
134. 
Aldous, Joan, GailMulligan and Thorodder Bjarnason. 1998. "Fathering Over 
Time: What Makes the Difference?" JournalofMarriageandtbeFam+60: 
809-820. 
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Apple, Rima and Janet Golden. 1997. Mother and Motherhood: Readings in 
American History. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press. 
Book, Marja, L. and Lenna Penttinen. 1997. 'The Portrait of the Unemployed 
Father in Finnish Women's Magazines." Journal of Comparative Family 
Studies 28: 262-279. 
Fox, Greer, Carol Bruce and Teri Combs-Orme. 2000. "Parenting Expecta- 
tions and Concerns of Fathers and Mothers of Newborn Infants." Family 
Relations 49: 123-131. 
Francis-Connolly, Elizabeth, B. 1999. "A Comparison of Two Motherhood 
Stages: Experience, Practice, and Meaning." Unpublished doctoral disser- 
tation, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 
Glenn, Evelyn. 1994. "Social Constructions of Mothering: A Thematic 
Overview." Mothering: Ideology Experience and Agency. Evelyn Glenn, 
Grace Chang, and Linda Forcey, eds. New York: Routledge. 1-29. 
Glenn, Evelyn, Grace Chang and Linda Forcey. 1994. Mothering: Ideology 
Experience andAgency. New York: Routledge. 
Hochschild, Arlie. 1989. The Second Shift. New York: Avon Books. 
Howard, Judith and Jocelyn Hollander. 1997. Gender Situations, Gender Selves. 
Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage. 
Kaufman, Gayle. 1999 "The portrayal of Men's family Roles in Television 
Commercials." Sex Roles 41: 439-458. 
Kaufman, Gayle and Peter Uhlenberg. 2000. "The Influence of Parenthood on 
the Work Effort ofMarried Men and Women." SocialForces-78: 931-947. 
Luke, Carmen. 1994. "Childhood and Parenting in Popular Culture." The 
Australian and New ZealandJournal of Sociology 30: 289-302. 
Lupton, Deborah and Lesley Barclay. 1997. Constructing Fatherhood: Discourses 
and Experiences. London: Sage Publications. 
Miller, Margaret, B. 1996. "Where are the Working Mothers in Children's 
Literature?" Initiatives 58: 47-50. 
MacDermid, Shelly, M., Ted Huston and Susan McHale. 1990. "Changes in 
Marriage Associated with the Transition to Parenthood: Individual Dif- 
ferences as a Function of Sex-Role Attitudes and Changes in the Division 
of Household Labor." Journal ofMarriage and the Family 52: 475-486. 
Phoenix, Ann, Anne Woollett and Eva Lloyd. 1991.Motherhood: Meanings, 
Practices and Ideologies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 
Skill, Thomas and D. James Robinson. 1994. "Four decades of Families on 
Television: A Demographic Profile." JournalofBroadcastingandElectrnic 
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Thurer, Shari, L. 1994."The Myths of Motherhood." Boston: Houghton 
Mifflin Co. 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering / 185 


Constructing Parenthood: Portrayals of Motherhood and Fatherhood in Popular American Magazines

Norman, Renee

Renee Norman 
New Westminster 
I. Between the Walls, Dead Mice 
in a navy wool coat 
she unlocks her first front door 
from out of nowhere 
the realtor appears 
solicitous apologetic 
she longs to be alone 
to take the first steps 
without his sleazy regard 
& only her unfriendliness 
at last drives him away 
the neighbour's son comes next 
to offer help with boxes 
she doesn't yet know 
he will move away from his father's drinking 
from his father's red-eyed watchfulness 
with a shotgun 
their bathroom window always open 
too close to the back deck 
she can hear this father cough 
fart, pee, puke, aim 
eventually she crosses all that out 
with a lattice fence 
the crisscrosses so close 
not even light can pass through the tiny pinpoints 
wood embroidery with a purpose 
154 1 Volume S, Number 2 
but that becomes the future past 
this is the poem's present 
when she does not realize 
as she walks the echoing tiled hall 
as she climbs the too-narrow stairs 
to the attic rooms 
childless 
exactly who is empty 
the selfwalking over red tiles 
glued over self 
grasping a shaky bannister 
to find nails in between the grass 
of the old shag rug 
someone must have left them there 
like leghold traps in the woods 
when the vacuum floated over the shag 
it would gulp one 
seize up & die 
the plug chewed away 
by the venom of that careless leaving 
whose stories gather like a hairball 
in the corner of a broken tile? 
bleed in the tip of a rusty nail? 
linger in the smell of stale cigarette smoke 
the yellow piss on blue rug 
dead mice listen for them with skeletal ears 
between the old walls 
Journal oftbe Association for Research on Mothering 1 155 
Renee Norman 
where termites slowly eat their way 
into homelessness 
whiie lovers lie on shag beds of nails 
feel the cold metal nakedness 
of empty rooms empty hearts 
she fills the living room with a bed 
a fridge 
the rug displays an orange juice stain 
near the bedsheets 
when florists peer into windows 
see hardwood peeled back like orange skins 
they assume no one lives there 
as if only rooms of fine hrniture &curtains 
cribs 
can breathe life into old houses 
the gift enclosure card 
sympathy for your loss 
found wet by the curb 
the only sign that someone sent cut flowers 
to furnish all the emptiness 
11. Outside, Trees & Hedges 
in the strawberry patch she pulls weeds 
aborts bean plants 
which would have ~roduced a second crop 
if she'd known they had more in them 
could carry to a second term 
if he hadn't shouted from the bathroom window 
yes, pull them 
it's a lot of work, isn't it? 
and are you building that fence because of me? 
around the Japanese plum tree 
ants swarm 
more ants than she has ever seen in one place 
some trees in the neighbourhood have trunks 
painted white 
the ants avoid these 
have gathered here for a conference 
(did she build that fence because of us?) 
the plums are delicious 
she feeds her swelling belly with their red flesh 
156 1 Volume S, Number 2 
New Westminster 
until she can't taste the embryo in pieces 
until she can't hear the dotted lines of ants 
or see him carrying empty bottles out of his house 
returning with brown bags bulging 
over the hedge which divides 
another part of the yard 
a small girl swings 
feet in the air 
her mother clanks around in the kitchen 
directs the girl in for supper 
with a spatula 
can be heard screaming over an expensive ring 
the girl lost 
this ring is ruby with 2 small pearls 
dropped in the grass somewhere 
a bright strawberry waiting to be picked 
beyond the hedge 
a woman in a wheelchair 
hangs wash on a low clothesline 
2 dish towels 1 baby bib 
& a pair of men's shorts 
her husband an ex-priest 
looks over the hedge daily 
checks the spaces in the lattice fence 
the meat on the B B Q  
the garden 
&her swelling belly 
one day he chops down the thick hedge 
in a massacre of leaves 
it is an unholy act 
when the baby is born 
the ex-priest exclaims over her fine features 
the man who carries bottles &shotguns 
does not notice the squalls of a newborn 
&the ring 
a thoroughfare for the ants 
remains lost 
in the middle of the neighbourhood 
Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering / 157 


New Westminster

Katz, Isabella Colalillo

lsabella Colalillo Katz 
Julie Payette made it to the stars 
Julie Payette made it to the stars 
after they said we were not good enough 
after they said we were not smart enough 
after they said we were not strong enough 
after they chained us to cook and clean 
for a thousand years 
after they denied us education 
after they said we were second class 
after making us chattel 
after making us bear their children 
and forcing us to raise them alone 
after leaving us poor and defenseless 
after making us doubt our own worth 
after enslaving our souls 
and trampling our spirit 
after denying us gender equity 
and deserved promotions 
after creating glass ceilings 
after denying us the vote 
after fighting against the ERA 
after making into lies 
our truths about gender exploitation 
after treating us like objects 
and selling our bodies for pleasure and profit 
after destroying our power to heal 
and burning our bodies and writings 
Journal ofthe Associationfor Research on Mothering / 199 
Isabella Colalillo Katz 
after all these injustices 
afier a million billion tribulations 
after uncountable lists of offences 
womanspirit is soaring to the stars 
our daughters are finally tasting freedom 
let us free them further 
we who are their mothers, aunts, 
sisters and grandmothers, 
their fathers, brothers, lovers and husbands 
let us work to set each other free 
let women grow into whatever shape and dreams 
let Julie Payette fly to the stars 
let our daughters dare and dream 
and fly and fly and fly. 
200 1 Volume S, Number l 


Julie Payette made it to the stars

Georgieva, Rosita

Rosita Georgieva 
On Mother's Day 
I remember that noon - I was turning 12 
and I believe that 12 is a magical number - 
we gathered in the dining room without any noise, 
the table was silently set - the silk and silver, scented candles, grapes, 
the heavy decoration over the mahogany 
was ready for years for my mother's return, 
the crystal was taken out but no one dared to touch a glass, 
my little brother forgot about his bottle of milk, 
there was thirst in the dried, scented air 
but no one asked for water, no one complained, 
my older sister was not in a mood to tease, the twins were simply 
a mirror reflection, without his chronic cough 
my father was a wax weird figure leaning over the table 
when the clock struck and everyone's heart counted 
the miraculous 12, and I saw the two "imaginary" cats 
under the big mahogany chair arching their backs 
and running down the stairs one second before the door-bell rang, 
and the stairs creaked and her figure - exacting and fast 
shook the house, shot the everyday irreality, 
- - 
and her voice came from my throat 
so dry that I pictured her as a thirsty explorer 
coming from a desert, 
I couldn't see the face - only her rusty-orange hair 
flaming the stairs, flaming the air, flaming years of waiting. 
In the fire of my mother's return 
no one cried out for water. 


On Mother's Day

Cuomo, Amy

Book Reviews 
Women in Labor: 
Mothers, Medicine and Occupational Health in 
the United States 1890-1980 
Hepler, Allison L. 
Columbus: Ohio State University Press. 2000. 
Reviewed by Amy Cuomo 
Women in Labor: Mothers, Medicine and OccupationalHealth in the UnitedStates 
1890-1980 provides an incisive history of gender issues in the workplace. 
Hepler's interdisciplinary approach to motherhood, medicine, and industrial 
labour offers a fully realized exploration of the many issues that have affected 
women in the workplace. While the book focuses on motherhood, the 
workplace, and health, Hepler's emphasis on gender allows for a wider 
understanding of occupational health that includes, for example, how and 
when laws intended to aidprotect women also benefited their male co- 
workers. As suggested by its subtitle, Hepler's book spans ninety years of 
occupational health and provides an interesting overview ofthe many problems 
women have faced in industry. The author's focus, however, eventually shifts 
to the conflict between feminists who believe in protective labour legislation for 
women in the workplace and feminists who work for women's equality by 
minimizing differences between men and women. 
Divided into seven chapters, Women in Labor explores the construction of 
the idea of occupational health. Hepler notes that early reformers' concerns 
about women's health in the workplace was founded on the principle that 
women's primary duty was that of mother. Long hours and unsanitary condi- 
tions could hinder women's ability to produce and raise future citizens. The 
author notes that reform efforts eventually led to protective legislation that 
limited the number of hours women could work in selected jobs. While 
protective legislation often was beneficial to women, it also prohibited their 
employment in jobs that posed less of an overall threat to their health. 
In the 1920s, the debate over protective legislation was shaped by two 
groups: the Women's Bureau and supporters ofthe Equal Rights Amendment. 
Hepler traces this debate through World War I1 when women's entry into the 
workforce in unprecedented numbers instigated a variety of reforms beneficial 
to both women and men. These reforms convinced protectionist advocates 
such as Alice Hamilton to support a philosophy that minimized difference. 
This philosophy, expressed by supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment, 
limited activism for protective legislation based solely on gender. 
Hepler continues her investigation of protectionism in her study of fetal 
protection policies by citing the American Cyanamid's surgical sterilization of 
five employees as part of its fetal protection policy. She also discusses the 
214 / Volume 5, Number 1 
Book Reviews 
Supreme Court case in which the United Auto Workers (UAW) challenged 
the constitutionality of Johnson Control's fetal protection policy. Hepler 
emphasizes the difficulties that result from the polarization ofprotective labour 
legislation and equality based policies regarding women in the workplace. 
While the Supreme Court declared fetalprotection policies unconstitutionalin 
UA Wv. Johnson Controls, Inc., (1991), this victory, according to Hepler "must 
be tempered by the realization that the decision did not result in a different 
work environment. Emphasizing equal rights has placed responsibility for 
health on the workers themselves." 
Women in Labor is an excellent resource for courses on women or gender 
studies. The book provides an invaluable history of how gender has dictated 
women's roles at work and at home. Also included are several carefully selected 
illustrations and photographs that portray women in industry. Hepler's schol- 
arship is impressive and her work is well research and documented. 
Born to Procreate: 
Women and Childbirth in France from the 
Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century 
Graves, Rolande. 
New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2001. 
Reviewed by Susan S. Hennessy 
In Born to Procreate, Rolande Graves lays out the history of midwifery and the 
development of obstetric medicine from medieval times through to the 
eighteenth century. The book begins with an overview of scientific knowledge 
during the Middle Ages. While medical doctors published numerous treatises 
on the female anatomy, beliefs stemming from superstition and the Church 
continued to override rational explanations for reproduction: "To these theo- 
ries must be added the philosophical debates on the power or influence of God 
and the stars on the sperm at the time of conception" (27). Other common 
beliefs included the notion of menstruation as a necessary purification of the 
body, or that menstruation was a means of shedding an overabundance ofblood 
in the woman's body. Such perceptions continued to pervade the scientific 
realm for centuries to come. 
Graves traces the evolution of obstetrical manuals, including those written 
by sagesfemmes. Ambroise Pare, cited as one of the more influential doctors, 
published manuals that provided extensive information drawn from his own 
experience with parturient women. They also describe and attempt to explain 
common complications of childbirth, stillbirths, and the birth of deformed 
babies. Here, too, superstition underlies the explanation of unusual births: 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering ( 215 


Women in Labor: Mothers, Medicine and Occupational Health in the United States, 1890-1980

Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering
Spring/Summer 2003, Vol 5, No 1, 246 pages

Mitchell, Lisa M.

Book Reviews 
accumulated over 30 years: "In labor you swim with contractions that are like 
tidal waves sweeping through your body. As you push the baby down, you know 
the intensity of the birth passion, and then reach out with eager hands to 
welcome your baby and cradle this new life in your arms. T o  see love made flesh 
is to witness a miracle." Phrases like "tidal waves," "birth passion," "love made 
flesh" flood the reader with elemental energy, instilling a desire to know such 
moments and lessening fear. The beautiful photographs visually corroborate 
her language of birth. Kitzinger describes the iatrogenic (physician induced 
disease or damage) consequences of common obstetrical interventions and of 
newborn care in hospitals, and the estrangement from "the spontaneous 
psychobiological processes of birth and the creative energy pouring through 
[women's] bodies." She provides abundant information on arranging a birth 
without a hospital, finding a midwife, choosing the right birth partner(s), 
meeting birth challenges in nonmedical ways, and planning the "babymoon." 
As Kitzinger states, in a "societythat is hostile to freedom in childbirth," it takes 
"courage to resist autocracy, dogma and the power of the medical system." Her 
words act like a tonic, invigorating women to find strength within themselves; 
this is the book's greatest act of midwifery. 
Pregnant Pictures 
Matthews, Sandra, and Laura Wexler. 
New York: Routledge, 2000. 
Reviewed by Lisa M. Mitchell 
In their introduction to Pregnant Pictures, Sandra Matthews and Laura Wexler 
ask an interesting and provocative question: "What is a photograph of preg- 
nancy anyway?" (xi). For North Americans the conventional response includes 
pictures ofwomen serene and glowing in a naturalized state, headless pregnant 
torsos in guides to pregnancy, and increasingly, images of the fetus. Matthews 
and Wexler's many photographs, with their accompanying analysis, provide a 
compelling framework for readers to move beyond the conventional responses 
and to think critically about howwe look at and interpret visual representations 
of pregnancy. 
Matthews and Wexler's analysis is framed in terms of different modes of 
lookingscopic, instrumental, clinical, and iconic-each with distinctive and 
changing implications for the production and consumption of images. Readers 
who are unfamiliar with visual theory may wish that the introductory chapter 
was a less dense, more accessible pathway into the subsequent analysis of the 
images. Mindful that looking occurs within particular contexts, the analysis 
nonetheless deftly links the act of viewing to changing attitudes about preg- 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering / 211 
Book Reviews 
nancy and the maternal figure, diverse representations of female subjectivity, 
and social conflicts over reproduction. 
The more than 200 photographs in the book are drawn primarilyfrom art, 
advertising, family albums, medical textbooks, and public policy material in the 
United States since World War 11. While there already are numerous analyses 
of obstetrical representations of pregnancy, women, and the fetus, Pregnant 
Pictures manages to offer a fresh reading of medical images by suggesting 
disturbing eugenicist connotations. Matthews and Wexler move onto less 
traveled terrain in their analyses of maternity clothing advertisements, their 
discussion of humour, athleticism, and eroticism in family snapshots of 
pregnancy, and in their argument about the simultaneous desire for and anxiety 
about the pregnant figure in popular media. Readers of this Journal will be 
interested particularly in their discussions ofthe instrumental uses ofpregnancy 
and motherhood in public policy, visual representations of single mothers and 
working mothers, and modernist visual conventions of desexualized mother- 
hood. 
In the social and historical context in which pregnancy so often is equated 
with producing and nurturing fetuses, reclaiming and embracing images of 
women during pregnancy is important cultural and political work. Yet, the 
authors manage to avoid fetishizing their subject, acknowledging that "many 
a pregnant woman already feels enough like a spectacle and would just as soon 
not be further featured in the feminine visual position ofto-be-looked-at-ness" 
(14-15). The book is a welcome visual companion to the growing number of 
text- and narrative-based analyses of the politics of reproduction and of the 
diverse subject positions of women in pregnancy and motherhood. Pregnant 
Pictures will be appreciated by researchers, students, and others interested in 
motherhood, reproduction, the life cycle, gender, visual studies, and the body. 
Birth Passages: 
Maternity and Nostalgia, Antiquity to 
Shakespeare 
Krier, Theresa M. 
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001. 
Reviewed by Jill Scott 
In Birth Passages, Theresa Krier writes against the grain of much contempo- 
rary critical analysis of the role of mothers and mothering in literature. 
Feminist psychoanalysis in particular has given voice to a larger cultural 
obsession with nostalgia for the lost mother, which in turn manifests itself as 
an insatiable desire for the return to the bliss of maternal, pre-oedipal one- 
212 / Volume S, Number l 


Pregnant Pictures

Moravec, Michelle

Book Reviews 
It  is also recognized that midwives require knowledge related to the social, 
cultural, psychological, and emotional experiences of childbearing women and 
their families, in addition to knowledge of the physical sciences and midwifery 
practice. 
It  is refreshing to see the physical aspects of childbearing presented at the 
end rather than the beginning of the book. The book commences with an 
emphasis on the woman-midwife relationship and midwifery practice. The 
contribution of political and organizational factors in affecting or mitigating 
against changes in maternity services is also discussed. 
All chapters are written concisely and present up-to-date knowledge, 
usually accompanied by an historical overview and suggestions for practice. The 
chapters written by midwives often include anecdotes from practice, which 
validate both midwifery practice and childbearing women's experiences, rein- 
force the usefulness of combining anecdotal evidence with scientifically vali- 
dated research, and make for delightful reading. 
This book would make a worthwhile contribution to the library of any 
midwife or midwifery student. 
Baby Catcher: 
Chronicles of a Modern Midwife. 
Vincent, Peggy. 
New York: Scribner, 2002. 
Reviewed by Michelle Moravec 
With her background in obstetrical nursing, natural childbirth education, and 
birth centre administration, Peggy Vincent's decision to become a licensed 
midwife with a specialization in home births seems almost expected; however, 
as Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwfe aptly illustrates, Vincent's 
experiences as a midwife were anything but the expected. 
As a young nursing student at Duke University, %ncent became disillu- 
sioned with traditional obstetric practices that gave labouring women no 
control over their experience of childbirth. The occasional pregnant women 
who "thrived on the challenge and the passion" of birth and refused to submit 
to the drugs and procedures considered necessary by the medical establishment 
showed Vincent that women could make their own decisions about what was 
best for their delivery. 
Inspired by the sweeping changes wrought by the various social move- 
ments of the 1960s, Vincent set out to transform women's experiences of 
childbirth. In Berkeley, California in the early 1970s, Vincent began working 
as a labour and delivery nurse just as the Lamaze movement gained popularity. 
However, her own labour and delivery convinced her that a formulaic approach 
to natural childbirth did not empower women anymore than the stuffy practices 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering 189 
Book Reviews 
of traditional medicine. Over the years, she developed a childbirth education 
course centred on the notion that "every birth is different" (52). 
As the women's health movement rapidly transformed the field of wom- 
en's health during this period, more women began seeking out alternative 
methods of childbirth and, in 1974, Vincent had the opportunity to witness 
firsthand the work of a "lay" midwife. She found the woman's skill so impressive 
that she began contemplating a career in midwifery. In her work as a nursing 
coordinator at a local birthing centre, Vincent enjoyed a degree of autonomy 
unheard of in conventional medical settings, but she still faced "physicians who 
believe that normal childbirth is a retrospective diagnosis" (58). After fifteen 
years as a nurse, Vincent retrained as a midwife and spent the next fifteen years 
attending home births. Although most of Vincent's narrative is inspirational, 
she sounds some cautionary notes. The number of home births, for example, 
has been severely curtailed by the ongoing difficulties faced by American lay 
midwives in acquiring malpractice insurance and medical back up from 
physicians and hospitals. 
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Baby Catcher is Vincent's style. 
Although she has delivered over more than 2,500 babies, each case she recounts 
reflects the joy and awe she feels at the moment ofbirth. Deftly, she interweaves 
memoir and case studies with an overview of the transformations over the past 
forty years in childbirth practices in the United States. Baby Catcher is avaluable 
work for health care professionals, scholars of pregnancy and birth, and the 
general reader interested in issues of women's health and pregnancy. 
Families As We Are: 
Conversations From Around The World 
Huston, Perdita. 
New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2001. 
Kerima Kostka 
Perdita Huston, who has worked for several international organizations as well 
as specialized agencies of the United Nations, spent more than four years 
interviewing several generations of families of all socioeconomic backgrounds 
in eleven countries throughout the world (Japan, China, Bangladesh, Thai- 
land, Mali, Uganda, Egypt, Jordan, El Salvador, Brazil, USA). Her approach 
is one of "empowerment": to let those who have little voice speak about 
themselves. 
Her book is a testament to these voices and illustrates-as only personal 
interviews are able to do-family life in its richness and complexity, as well as 
its changes and challenges, throughout the twentieth century. W i l e  listening 
to these individuals, one begins to see strihng parallels between all countries. 
190 1 Volume S, Number 2 


Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)

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Mothering Daughters: Novels and the Politics of Family Romance, Francis Burney to Jane Austen

Birth by Design: Pregnancy, Maternity Care, and Midwifery in North America and Europe

Constructing Parenthood: Portrayals of Motherhood and Fatherhood in Popular American Magazines

New Westminster

Julie Payette made it to the stars

On Mother's Day

Women in Labor: Mothers, Medicine and Occupational Health in the United States, 1890-1980

Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering Spring/Summer 2003, Vol 5, No 1, 246 pages

Pregnant Pictures

Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife

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