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

Gerber, Nancy F.

English

Binding the Narrative Thread: Storytelling and the Mother-Daughter Relationship in Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory

Younge, Ivan

lvan Younge 
Sewing Lesson 
Mother stitched ring quilts, 
made me test the seams, 
made me hold the threads 
as she sewed her words 
into her grandmother's image. 
She laced pie with cinnamon 
as her fingers worked shapes in moist flour, 
pulled threads of fragile crust into the lie 
of lattice work. 
She sang the hymn of canning figs, 
the mistakes of making wine, 
watching it wash away in water as she 
mopped it from a pantry wall. 
She passed on the catechism of roses, 
the ritual of clabbered milk, 
the rites of fresh morning biscuits. 
These were the shadows mother sewed. 
She wove a woman 
in words, in the craft 
her fingers had learned. These 
are the only memories I have of Granny 
beyond the one 
of her in a nursing home, 
paper napkin laid soft against her palms 
like fine silk, touching her fingers to it 
as if stitching the machined imprint, 
saying to me This is foryou, 
I made thisfor you. 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering ( 165 


Sewing Lesson

O’Brien, Leigh M.

Book Reviews 
racism. We get solid suggestions from Alison van Nie about teen explorations 
of spirituality, and an indispensable reminder from Carol Ricker-Wilson that 
high-schoolers still need parental advocacy. 
At times, however, the volume fails to comment on its own contradictions 
and focuses on the anecdotal, at the expense oflarger trends. With the notable 
exception of Bridget Lynch's moving memoir of a daughter with developmen- 
tal delays, the collection's autobiography seems limited to scant historical or 
statistical information. And I was surprised by the strange juxtaposition of 
Martha Fleming's article on economic class andTara Cullis's chapter on activist 
teens two essays later. Cullis, president of the philanthropic David Suzuki 
Foundation, is married to its founder and discusses her daughter's journey 
toward activism and documentary television stardom via hard work by mother 
and daughter, to be sure, but also through familial connection to Suzuki, a 
scientist and television broadcaster whom Cullis never mentions specifically. 
Having been thoroughly engaged, a few pages earlier, by Fleming's account of 
her struggle with her husband to provide opportunities for their children on a 
working-class income, it is difficult to care about the exploits of a nine-year-old 
so fortunately connected that a wealthy donor would offer $1000 for her 
environmental activism trip to Rio during a visit to the Suzuki family founda- 
tion (246). 
Despite this criticism, Motberinf Teens mlls its editor's mission to 
explain &hy our children behave as ;hey do, and to help us mother more 
intelligently. Kaufman "envision[s] this book being passed across back fences, 
being discussed in line at the bank or being argued about at church potlucks" 
(10). My volume has already traveled over one back fence into the hands of a 
colleague with a 13-year-olddaughter, and she will pass the bookon to a mutual 
friend. Let the conversations begin. 
Weaving Work and Motherhood 
Anita Ilta Garey, 1999, 
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999 
Reviewed by Leig h M. O'Brien 
As its title indicates, this book details the interconnectedness of "working" 
mothers' professional and personal lives. Garey uses the international meta- 
phor of weaving, as it is both a process and product. She notes that many 
women have followed a life pattern that is not linear and often have made life 
changes dictated by others' circumstances (e.g., a husband's job transfer; a 
child's graduation from school); but she contends nonetheless that women 
Journal oftbe Associationfor Research on Mothering 1 239 
Book Reviews 
make conscious, deliberate choices within the framework of their lives. The 
women she interviewed "are weaving patterns in which employment and 
mothering are not two independent lines but are overlapping, interwoven, and 
entangled." 
What is not clear is that the women Garey refers to in her title are all 
hospital workers. I feel she ought to have provided a subtitle indicating this 
focus. Although some general themes are applicable to all mothers working in 
female-dominated occupation, they are illustrated exclusively with examples 
from women in one profession. Hence, the examples given may not be readily 
applicable to other mothers who work outside the home. 
Garey interviewed 37 "racially and ethnically diverse" women living in 
California. The way she presents the stories told and the themes they develop 
mirrors the weaving metaphor mentioned above. She skillfully weaves the 
hospital workers' often compelling stories into the framework of each chapter. 
The book begins with an overview of the history of so-called "working 
mothers," a descriptor that Garey critiques. She then addresses what she calls 
"strategies of being" that women use to construct their identities. She devotes 
four chapters to the various job configurations within which the hospital 
workers function (e.g., involuntarypart-time work), and concludes by analyzing 
patterns over their life times and drawing implications from her findings. 
The points I find to be key follow. First, the mothers interviewed mention, 
time and again, that they want to "be there" for their children and they do so 
in a number ofways (for example, by working the night shift). Garey calls this 
"maternal visibility," which she contends is vitally important for manywomen. 
Another important point she makes is that for these women "the issue.. .is not 
a dichotomous one of being employed versus not being employed, nor is it an 
issue of being a worker or a mother - the issue is one of how to structure work 
and familylife so these two endeavors can be combined in ways that do not take 
such a heavy toll." She notes that mothers who are employed full time are 
virtually "doing it all" usually by giving up sleep. Further, the ability to balance 
conflicting demands is linked to the degree of support women receive. In 
Garey's stories, many of the women are trying to "do it all," with very limited 
support. 
This lack of support is addressed in her conclusion, where Garey argues 
that many work situations could be organized, as is nursing, to allow for more 
flexibility in career pathdlife courses. Many of the women with whom she 
spoke regret having had to give up time with their children; "these regrets were 
connected to expectations about what mothers should be doing for young 
children, such as 'being there'." Garey calls for us to move beyond an individu- 
alistic orientation, and suggests that we have to turn individual problems and 
solutions into societal ones. Again she argues that the metaphor of weaving 
better represents the actions and intentions ofwomen than the current (U.S.) 
model. She notes that the way we conceptualize the relationship of employ- 
ment and motherhood is important because howwe think about an issue shapes 
240 1 Volume 2, Number 2 
Book Reviews 
what we do about it. At present, without a broad vision and a social program, 
we are rooted in the status quo. 
Other countries have chosen different directions, and those countries 
provide far more support to parents and children. What we need, Garey 
charges, are "the kinds of changes that socialize responsibility for the care of 
children and that build employees' family responsibilities and relationships into 
the organization of the workplace. As a society, we should expect work and 
family life to be compatible." However, those of us who are parents living and 
working in the U.S., know alltoo well thatwe are stillalongway from this ideal. 
Garey's book helps clarify the dilemmas of the working mother and outlines 
possible reforms. 
In Defense of Single-Parent Families 
Nancy E. Dowd 
New York: New York University Press, 1997 
Reviewed by Robin Edward Gearing 
Slowly, painfully, many of the stigmas of yesterday are exposed and deposed. 
Nancy Dowd's In Defense of Single-Parent Families systematically examines the 
layers of overt and covert stigmatization faced by single parents. I was anxious 
to read this book as it openly and candidly analyzes the single parent role, both 
that of mother and father, in relation to economic status, race, age, law, 
tradition, and modern convention. Finally, this work opens each barrier to 
single parenting and boldly offers alternatives to the "normative"family form. 
Nancy Dowd, a legal professor and lawyer, introduces her book with 
simple and powerful words: "I am a single parent." Through her compelling 
analytical style supported with legal research and personalized with experience, 
Dowd outlines the realities and perceptions that affect single parents in our 
society. The "normative" two-parent family structure and the less conventional 
singlelparent family are introduced and kalyzed. After all, as Dowd states, 
"Dysfunctional families come in all shapes and sizes; so do healthy families". 
The text is well organized into three main segments: Myths and Realities; 
Law and Single Parents; and Law Reform. Section one examines the stigmas 
and quietly entrenched beliefs that negatively impact on the single-parent 
family. Methodically and with legal precision, the author describes and lists a 
wide range of stereotypes: that the single family is a problem family, that single 
mothers are to blame for their questionable mores, that children of single- 
parents are to be ostracized. Dowd uses research, knowledge, and literature to 
question the commonly held assumptions that single parents are immoral and 
cause poverty. 
Journal afthe Associationfor Research on Mothering 1 241 


Weaving Work and Motherhood

Holleman, Marybeth

Marybeth Holleman 
Joint Custody 
It's three in the afternoon and I'm driving home alone, except for my dog Keira. 
That's why I got the dog, so that I would never be alone. Rick comes and goes 
on his business trips. And Jamie comes and goes, too, from his father's house 
to mine, back and forth every few days. 
Most of the time, Jamie doesn't seem to mind this back and forth. I had 
worried so much about how he'd deal with having two homes, but maybe its 
easier for him because it started when he was only three years old. He  doesn't 
remember anything else. He  doesn't have any memories of me living in that 
house with his father. 
I had worried, too, that neither house would feel like home, that neither 
would be referred to as "home," but only as "Mom's house" or "Dad's house." 
But he calls them both "home;" he also calls them "your house" and "Dad's 
house," too. 
Home. What a loaded word. What a big and important concept, one most 
of us rarely consider. Most of us have just one place we call home. Think of it: 
to have two places to callohome. Two bedrooms, two beds, two addresses and 
phone numbers. How does that feel? Is it expanding or splitting? 
When Jamie is older, perhaps having two homes will be harder. When his 
things and his friends are more important than they are now, he might have a 
harder time going back and forth. Years ago, when his father and I were still 
together, I had a conversation with a student who had just split from her 
husband, putting her two daughters in Jamie's position of having two homes. 
She said it was traumatic for them, having to live out of a suitcase, always 
wanting something thatwas at the other house, forgetting homework, favourite 
clothes, all the bits and pieces that make up one's home scattered along the 
roadside from Mom's house to Dad's house. 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering 1 147 
Marybeth Holleman 
I did not want that for my son. But here I am, and there Jamie is at his 
father's, and now her story comes back to me so clearly, all the chaos and 
resentments that children should not have to bear. So I vow to let Jamie have 
two of everything, to drive to his father's any time of day or night to get what 
was left behind. I keep lists, I leave messages for his Dad several times a week 
reminding him of soccer practice, of homework, of what kind of medicine to 
buy for Jamie's cough. It's a lot of extra work, but I would have it no other way. 
It's the least I can do for my son. 
"I want to do the best that I can for him," I say to Andywhen we are having 
some discussion about, say, whether or not to sign him up for a summer camp. 
"I want to make decisions in his best interests, not in ours." 
And sometimes Andy will come back with the zinger, "We're not doing 
what's best for him, because we're not together. Ifyou wanted whatwas best for 
him, you would have chosen differently. But you didn't. This is not the way I 
would raise my son. It's screwed up." 
That's his attitude. That I messed things up, and so anything we do from 
here on in is just some poor second to what should have been. So ifJamie misses 
summer camp because we both want to spend time with him, or ifJamie has to 
go to the YMCA on school mornings at 7:OOam so that Andy can have him on 
school nights, well, then, that's just reality. 
But I don't believe it has to be this way. I thinkjoint custody requires that 
the parents try even harder to make things workout for their children, that they 
have to be even more vigilant about sorting out their desires from their 
children's. I often feel that Andy isn't making decisions in Jamie's best interests, 
but in his own. I know he needs Jamie, needs to spend time with him; I know 
that without him he is lonely. I know it because I feel the same way. But to deny 
Jamie the simple childhood delights of summer camp or going to a friend's 
house because of his parents' needs feels just plain wrong. 
It's just so damn hard. It's hard to figure out, it's hard to think about, it's 
hard to explain to someone who has not had to dealwith joint custody. It's hard 
for me to be friends with many of the other Moms; I often feel like they are 
either judging or pitying me, pitying my son. And I don't want that. It's no 
surprise that three of my closest women friends are divorced with children. 
Jamie had his end-of-the-school-year class picnic a few days ago. I went, 
carrying my requisite two dozen sandwiches. It  was five hours long, but for me 
it was even longer. All around me were happyfamilies, mothers who got to have 
their lovely little first graders with them every single night. Mothers whose 
children called only one place home, whose children were just there every day 
and night, expected, taken for granted. Every night the mothers tucked them 
in without thinking "Oh, how wonderful, my child will be here tomorrow 
night, too." Every night they tucked them in without having to think, "Oh, no, 
my child will go to his father's tomorrow. Tonight is the last night I'll have him 
here for a few days." That thought brings a feeling that makes you want to sit 
and watch your child sleep, to wake him up and keep him up all night, even if 
148 / Volume 2, Number 1 
Joint Custody 
tomorrow is a school day. When I say "I love you, Jamie, more than anything," 
it feels huge, as if I'm going to burst, and I have to hold back the other part of 
the thought: "I wish you could be with me always. I can't stand the thought of 
you not being here tomorrow night." 
Having my son only halfthe time brings out a different intensity of mother 
love. I t  is fierce and deep, but it is also dark. When he is with me, there's an 
added intensity like the sharp brilliance of sunlight after weeks of gray skies, 
because I am aware every single minute that he is not always with me, that this 
moment is so precious, so fill, simply because he is here. 
It's dark, too, because there's a looming thunderhead of dread, knowing 
this time together won't last. Right after he was born, I found in a parenting 
book a pie chart that showed the span of a human life. The slice of pie that 
represented a person's childhood was so small. So small. I remember talking 
with my sister, happy mother of four, about the precious early years, and we 
agreed that the more time we could spend with our babies, the better. Now I 
think of that chart with dismay, knowing that thin slice is cut in two. 
All I can do is make the most of our time together. All I can do is make it 
as full as possible. What I'm doing is trying to raise a child in half the time, so 
every moment is vital. I never get baby-sitters; when he is with me, I do Jamie 
things. He  may miss having baby-sitters. The few times we've had one, he has 
loved it. It's the opposite of the usual story, "I don't want to stay with the 
babysitter." 
'Whiie you're at your dad's this weekend, I'll get all my work done, so we 
can play when you come back," I always tell him, reassuring him that he won't 
miss anything here while he's gone. I'm careful about what I do when he's not 
here. I spend most of it working-writing and grading papers. I won't do 
anything that he might find fun, from planting the garden and changing the 
frog's tank to going to the bank that gives out suckers. I don't want him to feel 
that things are happening here without him. I would just shut down, go into 
stasis, if I could. I would live half a life. 
No. I must be a model for him of living life fully. This was a main reason 
I left my marriage; this is why I thought it would be better for all of us. I must 
model a fulfilled life. Even when he's not with me, I'm parenting. So I do my - 
work, I take the dog for long runs and steep hikes, I go see grown-up movies. 
Latelywhen he goes, I find myselfreading parenting books and magazines, 
thinking about certain instances with him, of how I could have done it better. 
In  a way, this is torture, because I sit there and realize how to parent better and 
then I can't do it until he gets back. Or I realize how I screwed up with him, and 
I can't apologize or try again. Once I did some reading in a child's self-esteem 
book and realized that I needed to respect his right to choose his own friends, 
and not make judgments about them to him. Another time I recognized a 
pattern of getting impatient with him instead of letting him figure things out 
himself. The reflection time is good, I suppose; it just leaves me feeling so 
bereft. 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering 1 149 
Marybeth Hollernun 
If I only get him half the time, I ought to be a really good parent. I ought 
to be more patient andunderstanding and open. I don't have the excuse of never 
having time to myself or ofjust getting exhausted from parenting. I have plenty 
of time to myself, plenty of breaks from his wonderful presence. 
Agood friend ofmine also has joint custody ofher son, but she has had him 
most ofthe time because the father is notveryinvolved. She kept telling me how 
lucky I was to have time for myself; I kept tebng her how lucky she was to have 
her boy with her so much. Recently the father has started keeping her son half 
the time, and she told me, "You're right. I t  is hard. I was lucky." 
He's only gone one night this time, so it shouldn't be bad. But it always is. 
It's been three years since we started doing this; you'd think I'd have come to 
grips with it by now. But every time he goes to his Dad, it feels like I've been 
hollowed out, like I'm just the sloughed off skin of a molting snake, or the husk 
of the corn. I could blow away in the slightest breeze. I am not. 
At  least it's only one night this time. I know he's fine without me for one 
night. Sometimes, when it's more than a couple of nights away, he'll ask me 
during our good-night call, in such a small voice that it feels like it's coming 
from my own womb, "When am I going to see you again?" And it makes me 
want to reach through the phone and pull him to me, to go to him right away. 
It  makes me feel like the world's worst mother. 
He goes to his father's and I don't know who I am. I am his mother. But 
how can I be, if I am here and he is there? What kind of a mother am I? 
Last summer I worked on a story with a photographer who shares his two 
sons with his ex-wife. The boys, teenagers, spend two weeks with one parent, 
two with the other. He  likes it thatway, says it's better than going backand forth 
more often. 
"When they arrive, it takes me a week to remember how to be a Dad, and 
then I have a weekwhere I'm really good at it. And then when they leave, it takes 
me a week to remember who I am besides a Dad." 
That's it. That's the feeling of loss. It's a loss of self as much as anything. 
I don't have periods of transition when Jamie returns; I am Mom immediately. 
I never stop being Mom, even when he's gone a week. I only have periods of 
transition when he's gone. 
The feeling ofloss is like the empty nest syndrome, over and over and over. 
And with a six-year-old, not an 18-year-old. Over and over to feel that loss, that 
cutting off of the right arm, that energy drain and heart break. 
Sometimes I wander about the house and find myself in his room. 
Sometimes I just sit and stare out the window. Sometimes I just cry It  hasn't 
gotten easier, even in three years. I keep hoping that it's all temporary, and if 
I can just get through this weekend withoutJamie, then he'll be with me forever. 
I t  keeps my life in a kind of limbo, so that I only know what's happening a few 
days ahead. 
The night before last, he was supposed to go to his Dad's, but I was feeling 
blue and Rickwas out of town, so I asked if I could keep him, and Andy agreed. 
I50 I Volume 2, Number I 
Joint Custody 
I knew even as I asked that I shouldn't need Jamie like that, but I did, I really 
did. 
I t  was a Godsend. W e  went to our favorite trail, and I ran with the dog 
while Jamie biked alongside us. The sun shone high in the sky, and the slightest 
breeze ruffled the treetops. I t  was one ofthose times where Jamie and Keira and 
I were all perfectly synchronous, just enjoying each other's company and the 
lovely summer day. And that night, Jamie slept with me, and I stared at him 
long after he'd gone to sleep, stared at that beautiful little boy face, and I could 
have stayed up all night just looking at him, I would have been happy had that 
night lasted forever, just me and him and Keira here, together, in our home. 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering I IS1 


Joint Custody

Gearing, Robin Edward

Book Reviews 
what we do about it. At present, without a broad vision and a social program, 
we are rooted in the status quo. 
Other countries have chosen different directions, and those countries 
provide far more support to parents and children. What we need, Garey 
charges, are "the kinds of changes that socialize responsibility for the care of 
children and that build employees' family responsibilities and relationships into 
the organization of the workplace. As a society, we should expect work and 
family life to be compatible." However, those of us who are parents living and 
working in the U.S., know alltoo well thatwe are stillalongway from this ideal. 
Garey's book helps clarify the dilemmas of the working mother and outlines 
possible reforms. 
In Defense of Single-Parent Families 
Nancy E. Dowd 
New York: New York University Press, 1997 
Reviewed by Robin Edward Gearing 
Slowly, painfully, many of the stigmas of yesterday are exposed and deposed. 
Nancy Dowd's In Defense of Single-Parent Families systematically examines the 
layers of overt and covert stigmatization faced by single parents. I was anxious 
to read this book as it openly and candidly analyzes the single parent role, both 
that of mother and father, in relation to economic status, race, age, law, 
tradition, and modern convention. Finally, this work opens each barrier to 
single parenting and boldly offers alternatives to the "normative"family form. 
Nancy Dowd, a legal professor and lawyer, introduces her book with 
simple and powerful words: "I am a single parent." Through her compelling 
analytical style supported with legal research and personalized with experience, 
Dowd outlines the realities and perceptions that affect single parents in our 
society. The "normative" two-parent family structure and the less conventional 
singlelparent family are introduced and kalyzed. After all, as Dowd states, 
"Dysfunctional families come in all shapes and sizes; so do healthy families". 
The text is well organized into three main segments: Myths and Realities; 
Law and Single Parents; and Law Reform. Section one examines the stigmas 
and quietly entrenched beliefs that negatively impact on the single-parent 
family. Methodically and with legal precision, the author describes and lists a 
wide range of stereotypes: that the single family is a problem family, that single 
mothers are to blame for their questionable mores, that children of single- 
parents are to be ostracized. Dowd uses research, knowledge, and literature to 
question the commonly held assumptions that single parents are immoral and 
cause poverty. 
Journal afthe Associationfor Research on Mothering 1 241 
Book Reviews 
Section two, "Law and Single Parents" considers the legal framework that 
hinders single parents, notably mothers, from overcoming obstacles that 
negatively impact on their lives and opportunities for their children. Here, 
Dowd presents a balanced view of the strengths of the single parent family and 
the unique resources that single parents can offer to all parents. The laws ofthe 
United States (and through inference, other industrialized Western countries) 
foster the negative stigmatization of all single parent families. Dowd, however, 
recognizes that single parents can be positive role models for children and 
society. Utilizing the historical, cultural, and situational realities of black single 
mothers, she describes alternative family structures, not as deviant but as 
valuable. 
In the section on "Law Reform," Dowd offers alternative policies for 
single-parent families and legal strategies to challenge the limitations imposed 
on single-parent families. Here she writes, "Although we have shified away 
from this [traditional] model, we have not yet articulated an alternative model. 
Our notions of equality no longer allow for presumed gender-based assignment 
of family roles, nor for the limitation of workplace opportunities." 
As a family therapist and researcher who examines parental roles, I was 
hopeful but wary when reading this book. Dowd writes, however, with 
remarkable precision as she details the realities of the single parent experience. 
This she does without glamorizing, demonizing, martyring, or vilifying single 
parents or traditional families. She recognizes that the traditional two-parent 
family, like society, has changed - it is time we looked at our structures, laws, 
and attitudes that, through omission or commission, have ignored these 
changes. In Defense of Single-Parent Families is a thoroughly researched work 
that defends single-parent families. I strongly recommend it. 
Mother Nature: 
A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection 
Sarah Blaffer Hrdy 
New York: Pantheon Books, 1999. 
Reviewed by Anna Beauchamp 
The past few decades have witnessed a long, pointless, and ill-informed debate 
over whether or not women have "maternal instincts." Given the historical 
context, the battle lines were understandable. The early literature on the 
biology of motherhood was built on patriarchal assumptions introduced by 
earlier generations of moralists. What was essentiallywishful thinking on their 
partwas substituted for objective observation. I t  has taken along time to correct 
these errors and revise old biases, to "raise Darwin's consciousness" and widen 
the evolutionary paradigm to include both sexes. (Blaffer Hrdy, 535) 
242 1 Volume 2, Number 2 


In Defense of Single-Parent Families

Gibson, Priscilla A.

Developmental Mothering in an African American Community: From Grandmothers to New Mothers Again

Contributor Notes 
Nancy Backes is an Assistant Professor of English at Cardinal Stritch Uni- 
versity in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Her specialty is contempory Ameri- 
can culture and literature written by women, particularly concerning women 
and age, especially dolescence. She has published articles on women and 
theatre, girls of color, and growing up female. Her interest in mothers and 
sons developed when, at age 42, she became a first-time mother of a son, now 
eight. 
Wanda Thomas Bernard, MSW, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Social 
Work at Dalhousie University. Her research interests include work on Black 
masculinity, parenting in the African Diaspora, racism, and oppression. 
Sandra Campbell, a psychometrist, has been conducting psychotherapy with 
children, adolsecents, and adults for over 20 years. Sandra is currently 
completeing a P.hD. in Psychology, with the focus ofher thesis on depression 
in adolecsence. 
Joyce B. Castle is an associate professor at the Faculty of Education, Brock 
University, where she teaches Language Arts courses and works with preservice 
and inservice teachers to promote professional development. Her research 
interests are in literacy development, teacher development, collaboration, and 
women's issues within these contexts. 
Sharon Anne Cookis Full Professor and Director ofTeacher Education in the 
Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa. Her publications relate to gender 
issues in education, teacher education, and the history of education, women 
and religious movements. She is currently coeditor of a millennia1 history of 
women in Canada entitled Framing Our Past, due to be published in late 2000 
with McGill-Queen's University Press. 
Juanita Ross Epp is Associate Professor of Education at Lakehead University 
in Thunder Baywhere she teaches School Law and Race and Gender Issues in 
Education. She followed Sharon Cook as president ofthe Canadian Societyfor 
the Study of Women in Education (CASWE) and the two of them organized 
212 / Volume 2, Number 1 
Contributor Notes 
CASWE's Second Annual International Institute. Their partnership for this 
project emerged when it was discovered that both had "brought forth male 
children only." Juanita has also served on the OCUFA Status of Women 
Committee and Lakehead University's Women's Studies Advisory. Her most 
recent books are Systemic Violence: How Schools Hurt Children (Falmer 
Press, 1996) and Systemic Violence in Education: Promise Broken (SUNY 
Press, 1997). The Falmer bookwas recently translated into Spanish. 
Aileen Fitzke received a B.A. in Biological Sciences from Rutgers University. 
At  time of publication she will have (hopefully) received an M.A. in Feminist 
Spirituality from Immaculate Heart College Center in Los Angeles. She is a 
dedicated homeschool mom who resides in San Marcos, California with her 
husband, Karl and two wonderful sons, Nicholas and Joe. 
Joan Garvan is the mother of two small children. She became a mother for the 
first time at the age of 42. She has a Master of Arts in Women's Studies and 
Human Geography from UNSW. Her research project was entitled "Gender, 
Geography and Resistance." She is glued to anything she can find on the subject 
of motherhood and family, particularly poetry. She is hoping to develop a 
historical or philosophical research project on the topic of motherhood. 
Robin Gearing, a father of two, has worked as a family therapist in various 
settings, focusing on the parenting roles of mothers and fathers. His current 
research examines the nurturing bond between fathers and their children. 
Robin works with families at the Hospital for Sick Children and in private 
practice. 
Marion Stichman Gold is an Ed.D. candidate at OISE/University of Toronto 
in the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Department, Centre for Teacher 
Development. Her thesis proposal focuses on the reality that her personal life 
as a wife, mother, daughter and grandmother served as a template for her 
professional life as a teacher, graduate student and life-long learner within and 
without the walls ofthe academy. In the process ofrevisiting her past, travelling 
forward to the future and visiting her present, she will be telling and retelling 
narratives of her lived experiences as an educator, a researcher, a mother and a 
grandmother. As a grandmother, she will be revisioning aging and exploring 
the possibilities of empowerment through becoming a griot, a tribal elder, who 
transmits stories of motherhood and learning to the next generation. 
Jaime M. Grant is a lesbian writedactivist with over 15 years of experience in 
feminist, antiracist and queer movement work. Currently, she directs The 
Union Institute Center for Women, an academic women's center in Washing- 
ton, D.C. dedicated to coalition work between scholars and activists. She is a 
recovering addict who writes frequently about feminism, racism, and sex. 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering 1 213 
Contributor Notes 
Fiona Joy Green is the mother of a ten-year-old. She is finishing her disserta- 
tion "The Politics of Feminist Mothering: The Hidden Praxis of Feminist 
Pedagogy and Activism" for an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. (Education, Sociology 
and Women's Studies) from the UniversityofManitoba. She has been teaching 
in the Women' Studies Program at the Univeristy of Winnipeg for ten years. 
Anna Hagan is gay and "out" for 24 years. She and her spouse have one child 
each within their 15-year-relationship using the same anonymous sperm 
donor. She had the first born, a boy now seven years old. Her partner gave birth 
to their daughter who is now five years old. She is an R.N. specialized in the 
Operating Room. She writes and publishes alotabout issues involving children, 
parents, and their O.R. experiences. She has just obtained her Masters in 
Theology, Metaphysics and Ethics, not as areligious quest but more to enhance 
her knowledge and understanding about choices parents make for their 
children according to their religious and cultural background. She is a very 
enthusiastic, 40-year-young woman and when not working in the O.R. spends 
much of her time writing (one of her truest passions). 
Jennifer Harris is a Ph.D. candidate at York University, Toronto. She is an 
editor at the cultural studies journal a(phadet city.. culture theo ypolitics and the 
co-editor of a forthcoming issue of the Canadian Review ofAmerican Studies 
titled "Blackness and the 49th Parallel." She has published in a number of 
Canadian feminist journals including Fireweed and Adantis. 
Bernice L. Hausman is associate professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic 
Institute and State University. She is author of Changing Sex: Transsexualism, 
Technology, andthe Idea ofGender (Duke 1995) and is currently working on a 
book manuscript entitled Between Science andNature: Representing Breastfeeding 
in the 20th Centu y. 
Marybeth Holleman is a single mother of one eight-year-old boy, James. She 
teaches creative writing and women's studies at the University of Alaska 
Anchorage. Her work has appeared in venues including The North American 
Review, Solo, American Nature Writing, Orion, and National WifdlF. She holds 
a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of North Carolina at 
Chapel Hill and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing-Nonfiction from the 
University ofAlaska Anchorage. She is atworkon a bookabout Prince William 
Sound. 
Robbie Pfeufer Kahn is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of 
Vermont. She won the 1997 Jesse Bernard Award of the American Sociologi- 
cal Association for her book Bearing Meaning: The Language ofBirth. Her 27- 
year-old son lives in Brooklyn with Simone and attends Pratt Institute in 
graphic design. 
214 1 Volume 2, Number 1 
Contributor Notes 
Dannabang Kuwabong is a part-time instructor at McMaster University 
whose research interests include postcolonial literature and theory and Carib- 
bean and African women's literature. 
Eva C. Karpinski is currently completing her Ph.D. in Women's Studies at 
YorkUniversity. Her research focuses on immigrant women's life writing. She 
has published articles on women's writing, multiculturalism, and feminist 
theory in Atlantis, CWSAJ Journal of Canadian Studies, Canadian Ethnic 
Studies, and Studies in Canadian Literature. 
Sue Levesque is a doctoral student in the Graduate Programme in Women's 
Studies at York University. Her major research interests include media repre- 
sentation of violence against women and the language choices men use to 
explain, understand and justify their violent behaviour. 
Susan Maccallurn-Whitcomb teaches American Literature at the University 
of New Brunswick (St. John). Her most recent work, "This Giving Birth": 
Pregnancy and Childbirth in American Women 'J Writing, a critical anthology co- 
editedwith Julie Tharp was recently published by Bowling Green Press (2000). 
She is a grassroots feminist and the mother of two young children. 
Judy Martin makes art quilts. Some use dyed and over dyed fabrics sewn into 
abstract patterns. Others use traditional patterns and symbols along with a 
variety of figurative imagery in order to tell life stories. Many of her pieces 
employ a unique method of stitching papers or photographs into grids and 
other quilt like patterns. She has also made several soft books employing the 
above techniques. She has been exhibiting her quilts and books for 18 years and 
her watercolour paintings for 20. Her quilts and watercolours are in many 
private and public collections including those of the Government of Ontario 
and the Canada Council Art Bank. 
Ruby Newman teaches women's studies and humanities at YorkUniversityand 
is the Faculty Coordinator of the Women's Bridging Program at the School of 
Women's Studies. She lectures widely in the community and is the mother of 
a daughter and two sons. 
Andrea O'Reilly is an assistant professor in the School ofwomen's Studies at 
York University where she teaches courses on Toni Morrison, motherhood, 
and on mothers and daughters. She has presented her research at numerous 
international conferences and she is the author of more than a dozen articles 
and chapters on these topics. She is co-editor of Redejning Motherhood: 
Changing Identities and Patterns (Second Story Press, 1998) Mothers and 
Daughters: Connection, Empowerment and Transformation (Rowman and 
Littlefield, 2000) and the special 20th anniversary issue of Canadian Woman 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering 1 215 
Contributor Notes 
Studiedles cahiersdela femme (Summer/Fall1998) on "Looking Back, Looking 
Forward: Mothers, Daughters and Feminism." She is the author of Toni 
Morrison on Motherhood (forthcoming, Ohio State Press) and she is the editor 
ofMothers and Sons (forthcoming, Routledge Press). She is foundingpresident 
of the Association for Research on Mothering (A.R.M). Andrea is the mother 
of a 15-year-old son and two daughters, 10 and 13. 
Ruth Panofsky is a member of the Department of English at Ryerson 
Polytechnic University where she teaches Canadian Literature. She is author 
of Adele Wiseman: An Annotated Bibliography (1992) and co-editor of Selected 
Letters of Margaret Laurence and Adele Wiseman (1997). Her articles, book 
reviews, and poems have appeared in literary journals and major Canadian 
newspapers. 
Christine Peets is a mother, writer, editor, and researcher who lives in 
Napanee, Ontario. While she has taken paid employment outside ofthe home, 
she feels her feminist politics are best expressed through the unpaid and paid 
work she does from home. Her relationship with her sons continues to be joyful 
and challenging. 
Marie Porter is currently doing a PhD at the University of Queensland. She is 
researching the experiences of a group of Australian women who were first- 
time mothers between 1950 and 1965. Her thesis will examine how these 
women were both constrained by their gender and enriched by their mothenvork. 
Her study began after a period of ill-health made her realize she needed some 
outlet from the constancy of care she was undertaking with her son, Anthony. 
These intensive experiences of mothenvork have led to a great respect for 
mothers and an abidinginterest in them and their life experiences. Marie is still 
intimately involved in Anthony's care and his needs override other commit- 
ments, so practical mothering continues to be part of her life. 
Lisa Bryn Rundle is a recent graduate of York University's graduate Women's 
Studies program. She is currently working as a freelance writer and was the 
part-time editorial and administrative assistant at the Association for Research 
onMothering and for the issue on "Mothers and Sons." She has recently started 
a new job as Assistant to the Editor at Saturday Night magazine. 
Rachel Josefowitz Siegel is a feminist therapist, now retired, in Ithaca, New 
York. She has authored numerous articles on women and aging and on Jewish 
women. She is co-editor of four books, the latest, entitledjewish Mothers Tell 
theirStories:Acts ofLoveand Courage, will be published by Haworth Press before 
Mother's Day 2000. 
Julie Thacker just completed her M.A. in Gender Studies at the University of 
216 1 Volume 2, Number 1 
Contributor Notes 
Northern British Columbia. Her thesis entitled, "Mothers Who Live Apart 
From Their Children," explores the lives of these women and their 
marginalisation. She will be entering University of Northern British Colum- 
bia's doctorate of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Program in 
January where she will study the impact of environmental degradation on a 
group of First Nations Women. Julie has two teenagers, the oldest ofwhom is 
in her first year of college. 
Nancy D. Tolson is assistant professor at Illinois State University. She 
specializes in children's, Black, and multicultural literature. Her research 
emphasis is on African Diaspora folklore and Black children's literature. 
Publications include essays in Children's Literature Association Quarterly and 
A'ican American Review. She is the author of Tales of A'ica and is currently 
working on a book entitled My Poems Are Indelicate. But ro is Life. She is the 
happy mother of three wild flowers: Kenneth, Kinnethia and Kindyl for whom 
all her work is dedicated to. 
Mary Valentich, PhD, RSW is a Professor Emerita in the Faculty of Social 
Work, University of Calgary. Her areas of teaching, practice and research are 
feminist social work practice, human sexuality, and a range of women's issues, 
including Croatian women and their roles as wives, mothers and workers. She 
is a Certified Sex Educator, Counselor, and Therapist and maintains a private 
practice. 
Christ1 Verduyn ihas taught at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario 
since 1980, and has chaired both the Women's Studies Program and the 
Canadian Studies Program. Her most recent bookis Marian Engeli Notebook 
'M, mon cahier ecoute . . . " (1999). 
Madeleine Wong is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography at 
York University. Her research interests include immigration, gender, and 
identity, and transnational activities of African immigrants in the Diaspora. 
Her dissertation examines the experiences of Ghanaian immigrant women in 
Toronto and the links they maintain with families in Ghana. 
Ivan Young is a native of Columbia, South Carolina. Formerly a Visiting 
Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Carolina, he now 
works as a free-lance editor and resides in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where he 
spends his free time pursuing his career as a poet. His work has been published 
in New Review, Yemarsee, and The Point. 
Journal oftbe Association for Research on Mothering 1 21 7 


Contributor Notes

Faith, Wendy

Book Reviews 
engaged by Michael Sweet, and Joseph Kramer discusses alternate rituals for 
gay men, but the Bible is the main rallying force behind these essays. As Mona 
West explains in the opening to her essay: 'Whether or not we consider 
ourselves religious, and whether or not we consider the Bible to be the inspired 
word of God, our reality is that the Bible is used against the Queer community 
to condemn our lifestyles, exclude us from religious communities, perpetuate 
violence against us, and deny our basic human rights" (51). Point taken, but the 
Judeo-Christian focus of this book may alienate some readers. On the other 
hand, these scholars collective re-reading of the Bible may be appreciated. 
Overall, any problems with individual arguments are counteracted by 
other essays, and this is what makes an anthology of this kind work. The 
editors, Goss and Amy Adams Squire Strongheart, have carefully included a 
wide variety of perspectives that the reader will find refreshing and informative. 
Thinking About the Baby: 
Gender and Transitions into Parenthood 
Susan Walzer 
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998 
Reviewed by Wendy Faith 
This bracingly incisive book focuses a sociological lens on the gender polariza- 
tion between heterosexual spouses that coincides in American culture with the 
onset of parenting. Through a study of interview data from fifty new mothers 
and fathers, Susan Walzer reveals that parents unwittingly replicate Victorian- 
based images of motherhood and fatherhood that persist in the tacit sentiments 
of older family members, the clichkd messages of television programs, and the 
patent advice of baby-care "experts." Reinforced by gendered wage disparity, 
these images promote the idea that child-rearing is the primary responsibility 
of mothers while only an auxiliary activity of fathers. 
By accentuating the numerous social pressures that help to shape parental 
consciousness, Walzer smartly debunks the humanistic assumption that mater- 
nal and paternal divisions of labour are reasonably negotiated between self- 
determining partners. She contrarily maintains that parents- "driven by 
complex feelings of accountability, anxiety, insecurity, and entitlement" - 
rationalize the preexistent "models of mothers as ever-present nurturers and of 
fathers as providers and part-time playmates." Especially commendable is her 
analysis of these roles, which circumvents the tiresome nature versus nurture 
polemic. While accepting in principle the claim that gestational, hormonal, and 
Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering 1 249 
Book Reviews 
lactational states affect the normalization of maternal behaviour, she under- 
mines biological determinism by exploring the meanings that are socially 
imputed to such factors. In so doing, she casts considerable light on "why 
mothers experience significant stress in entering a role considered to be'natural' 
for them." 
But although this book begins with the wholehearted conviction that the 
sociological influences on parenting are generally "underrated," it ends with the 
halfhearted notion that men and women "can try to make fair choices within a 
less than fair social context." Included in the final chapter is advice on how 
individuals can protect their relationships from the negative effects of stere- 
otyping. I appreciated the soundness of these suggestions; however, I expected 
greater discussion on what might be done collectively, rather than interperson- 
ally, to combat the increased gender differentiation that concurs with sexual 
reproduction. 
Nonetheless, this accessible study will be an eye-opener for many new 
mothers and fathers who unknowingly attempt to meet both the current 
demands of family l i f e such  as the need for a dual income-and the neo- 
Victorian expectations ofparenthood. As Walzeis analysis clearly shows, it is 
common for partners to profess that gender roles have changed and, at the same 
time, evaluate their own and their mate's parental conduct in terms of 
conservative cultural ideals. Thus, the model of the ever-present mother, who 
indefatigably devotes her physical, emotional, and mental energy to the well- 
being ofher children, prevails even when both partners are required to provide 
financially for the family. Such insights prompted me to recollect my own 
experiences as a new mother only to discover (to my chagrin) that I had 
internalized some ofthe same gendered cultural imagery as Walzer's interview- 
ees. Readers will undoubtedly find ThinkingAdoutthe Baby not only engrossing 
but also illuminating. 
In Her Mother's House: The Politics of Asian 
American Mother-Daughter Writing 
Wendy H o  
Oxford: Altamira Press, 1999 
Reviewed by Andrea Riesch Toepell 
In Her Mother's House, by Wendy Ho, is part of the Critical Perspectives on 
Asian Pacific Americans Series, published by AltaMira Press. There are five 
other titles in this series. 
In Her Mother's House is subtitled The Politics ofAsian American Mother- 
Daughter Writing. This is a good description of the fairly narrowfield covered 
250 1 Volume 2, Number 2 


Thinking About the Baby: Gender and Transitions into Parenthood

Green, Fiona Joy

Book Reviews 
Unfortunately, Family Secrets falls short of meeting the formidable task of 
providing an in-depth understanding of why Baker's sons, or other gay men, 
keep their identities as gay males secret from family, friends, and others. What 
is obviously missing, and most frustrating, is the Baker's analysis ofher own role 
as a mother in contributing to, and perpetuating, the need of both her sons to 
keep their sexuality a secret. Throughout the narrative Baker provides glimpses 
of her own homophobia, appearing tolerant and as a therapist, yet feeling 
devastated as a parentwhen she discovers that Gary is gay. The continued hope 
that Gary is somehow not gay is central to the first half of the book and lingers 
throughout the text. I found her need to attribute Gary's idiosyncracies, and 
many of his personal choices, to his sexuality alone, a testimony to her 
homophobia. Human development is much more complex and complicated. 
Although I recognize that Baker is strongly influenced by both the 
psychological theories of homosexuality of the 1970s and 1980s, and the 
general hatred for and ignorance about homosexuality and homosexuals during 
the reign of Regan and Bush in the U.S., where Baker lives and practices, I am 
frustrated. Surely, as a psychologist, Baker can see the necessity for an analysis 
of her contribution as a mother to the pain and suffering that both her sons 
experience due to homophobia and the secrecy about their sexuality. The fact 
that Andy never disclosed his homosexualitly to Baker, even after witnessing 
her love and support for his brother through his suffering and death, attests to 
the continued lack of comfort, if not homophobia, I suspect he experiences in 
the motherlson relationship. I t  is not until the latter part of book, after the 
death of Gary, that Baker accepts the tragedy of Gary's life is his death and "the 
fact ofhis gaynessn(181). This suggests homophobia and attests to the need for 
self-analysis by Baker. Had Baker done her homework by addressing her 
personal role in the "family secret" of her gay sons, I think her bookwould have 
been much more insightful. 
Mother of My Mother: 
The Intricate Bond Between Generations 
Hope Edelman 
New York: The Dial Press, 1999 
Reviewed by Fiona Joy Green 
Mother ofMy Mother: The Intricate BondBeween Generations, part memoir and 
part reportage, comes on the heels of Hope Edelman's international bestseller 
Motherless Daughters.. The Legacy ofLoss (1995). In the introduction to this 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering 1 199 
Book Reviews 
second volume, Edelman shares with the reader herjourney to comprehend the 
centrality ofthe interconnection ofgrandmother-mother-granddaughter. Only 
by being attentive to the unexpected, persistently gentle interruptions of her 
mother in her own memories of her grandmother, is she able to recognize how 
"every grandmother-granddaughter relationship is connected by two mother- 
daughter bonds" (10). The strength ofMother $My Mother, I believe, comes 
precisely from this insight. Had Edelman not attended to the inter-generational 
connection along maternal lines, the book would not be as comprehensive or 
as rich in its exploration and analysis ofthe grandmother-granddaughter bond. 
By eloquently drawing on her own recollections, the remembrances of over 
seventy other granddaughters, and on research in the field of Psychology, 
Edelman successfully illuminates the three-generational triad from which 
women develop their female identities. 
The book is well organized, with twenty chapters divided into four parts, 
taking the reader through various relationships granddaughters have with their 
grandmothers as the younger women mature from childhood through to 
motherhood. Part I, grounded in the childhood memories and experiences of 
Edelman and a number of other granddaughters, explains how the kind of 
influence grandmothers have on the development of the emerging self in 
granddaughters is shaped by the type of relationship the grandmother has with 
the mother, and whether the granddaughter's relationship with the grand- 
mother is primary or secondary. Part I1 delves into the push and pull often 
associated with adolescent maturation and the process of developing a sense of 
self that frequently draws daughters away from their mothers. Here Edelman 
uses the dynamics of the three-woman triangle to demonstrate the role 
grandmothers play in both the development ofgranddaughters and in support- 
ing and caring for them as they move from girlhood to womanhood. 
Part I11 focuses on the centrality of maternal grandmothers to many 
families and explores four specific archetypes of matriarchs that emerge from 
Edelman's research. The Autocrat is the grandmother who rules her extended 
family like a tyrant, with members acting out of fear of her anger, or loss of her 
affection. Edelman describes her own grandmother as a Benevolent Manipu- 
lator, "whose love for her familyis matched onlybyher desire for control" (148). 
A different kind of elder, who possesses a quite, behind-the-scenes power and 
whose very presence elicits awe and respect, is the Gentle Giant. The final 
matriarchal figure described by Edelman is the Kinkeeper, who acts as the 
family's social, cultural, or religious core and offers a sense of cohesion to the 
extended clan. Not all grandmothers fit succinctly into a singular category, as 
many share characteristics oftwo or even three archetypes. Regardless ofwhere 
grandmothers fit into this schema, it is clear that the family's power dynamics 
and the granddaughter's opinion of her grandmother are closely related to the 
type of matriarchal power the grandmother assumes. 
The final section of the book addresses the changing relationship between 
granddaughter and grandmother as both women mature. Granddaughters in 
200 / Volume 2, Number 1 
Book Reviews 
their 20s and 30s frequently switch places with their grandmothers, with the 
younger woman becoming the nurturer, care giver and confidant of the older 
woman. Edelman speaks eloquently of the emotional discomfort and pain that 
"greying" granddaughters experience as they see the health and strength of their 
grandmothers fail, and how a granddaughter's grief over the death of her 
grandmother does not have a forum. The death of a maternal grandmother 
means not only the passing of an era and the realignment of the female line, it 
also brings the loss of a multifaceted relationship, the loss of the granddaughter 
role and the loss of a direct connection to one's childhood. 
Before reading this book I had not thought much about the triad of my 
mother, my grandmother, and myself, or of the ways in which this trinity has 
influenced each of our lives. Like many ofthe other granddaughters in the book, 
I too was distanced from my grandmother, and often experienced a difficult 
relationship with my own mother. But, unlike Edelman, I did not have the 
good fortune of spending time with my maternal grandmother, who lived 
across an ocean, and died almost 25 years ago. We only saw each other for very 
brief periods of time once every few years, and my lone recollection of my 
Granny is of my last visit with her just before she died when I was 15. Although 
I did not have a strong relationship with my grandmother, reading Edelman's 
book has provided insight into my relationship with my own mother, and the 
significance of the triad I am in as a daughter and mother. I am more aware of 
the role of each one of us in my child's development and sense of self. 
Overall this book is beautifully written, and Edelman braids her own 
memories with those of other granddaughters and with psychological research, 
making her book a smooth and easy read. My only criticism, which is minor, 
comes from my position as an academic. I found Edelman's citation of sources 
to be unclear. Although she provides a good bibliography, the notes at the end 
of the book are not obvious in the text. It is not until I reached the end of the 
book that I found notes corresponding to references made within the text. 
Having said this, I strongly recommend M o t h e r  $My M o t h e r  to anyone 
interested in her own development as a woman, daughter, and mother, and to 
the role she may have in the development of future generations. 
The Reality of Breastfeeding: 
Reflections by Contemporary Women 
Amy Benson Brown and Kathryn Read McPherson, editors 
Westport, CT: Bergin and Gamey, 1998. 
Reviewed by Bernice L. Hausman 
In this volume, readersget avariety of short takes on breastfeeding in the latter 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering ( 201 


Mother of My Mother: The Intricate Bond Between Generations

Jeremiah, Emily

Book Reviews 
Women as Wombs: 
Reproductive Technologies and the Battle Over 
Women's Freedom 
Janice G. Raymond 
North Melbourne: Spinifex, 1994 (first published 1993) 
Reviewed by Emily Jeremiah 
A passionate yet coolly reasoned polemic, Janice G. Raymond's, Women as 
Wornhs offers an array of alarming insights regarding the worldwide implica- 
tions of new reproductive technologies. Raymond's main charge is that such 
technologies commodify women, rendering them objects of exchange, mere 
vessels. Her argument is powerfully and cogently supported by numerous 
examples of corruption and malpractice on the part of "technological progeni- 
tors." It  is couched in stringent yet elegant language and it cannot be ignored. 
An activist and academic, Raymond is ambivalent towards the academy, 
which she charges with stuffy elitism, and she proffers here what she terms 'a 
dose of reality.' Such a claim might appear naive. Indeed, Raymond herself 
deploys the notion of "discourses" at several points in her book, thereby 
suggesting a postructuralist awareness of reality as constructed. Nonetheless, 
Raymond's insistence on women's lived experience, on their 'dignity' and 
"integrity,"constitutes a refreshing and powerful corrective to certain forms of 
postmodernism which leave questions of ethics aside. I t  is this aspect of 
postmodernism which leads Raymond to reject it out ofhand. I would disagree 
with her here. For feminist postmodernism has, in recent years, sought to 
develop an ethics of "mutual responsibility and care" (Shildrick, 1997: 122), 
which would be fluid and alive to specific contexts. 
Raymond herself is a practitioner of such a postmodernist ethics (although 
she would balk at the thought). Postmodernist accounts of maternityview it as 
contingent, constructed, and relational, as does Raymond, whose treatment of 
reproduction is highly nuanced. One of the many strengths of Raymond's 
account is its global perspective; this is a metanarrative, but it is one intensely 
aware of cultural and national differences. Raymond thus shares with 
postmodernist feminism a concern to challenge and develop white, middle- 
class, feminist thinking of earlier years. Her preoccupation with issues of race 
and class underpins and strengthens this challenge. Raymond also stresses that 
mothering is a relational process; the postmodernist decentering of the subject 
which she criticizes has, in fact, offered he1 to this notion, and can, I believe, 
be drawn upon fruitfully rather that merely jettisoned. But while Raymond is 
a little unfair in her critique of postmodernist feminism, her call for women to 
act together is both urgent and compelling. It  highlights usefully aspects of 
postmodernism which are problematic for humanist feminism; in particular, it 
252 1 Volume 2, Number 2 
Book Reviews 
forces us to consider the notion ofa feminist community as vital. Raymond thus 
both contributes to and challenges postmodernist thinking. 
She offers numerous other insights. Raymond's view of the body as 
something one is rather than something one owns, is illuminating. I t  constitutes 
a powerful tool in the author's critique of liberalism with its ideals of (mascu- 
line) autonomy and agency, and it the embodied subject as arealitywhich 
is not to be ignored. Raymond is also excellent on the issue of choice, pointing 
out that decisions are made in specific contexts, and informed by innumerable 
factors; where reproductive liberals extol choice as the ultimate value, they are 
being glib and simplistic. In addition, Raymond delicately steers a course 
between presenting women as victims of an oppressive institution, and high- 
lighting their agency. She is above all concerned with power, criticizing the 
ineffectual discourse of "women's rightsn as inadequate. Rayrnond always is 
keenly aware of the complexity of context, identifying and untangling the mesh 
offactors involved in the issue of reproduction. She uncovers the links between 
sexuality and reproduction, between the status ofwomen and that of children, 
and between the ideologies of maternity and femininity. Women as Wombs is 
thus searching, complex, and important. 
Reference 
ShildrickMargrit. 1997. LeakyBodiesandBoundaries:Feminism, Postmodernism 
and (Bio)Ethics. London and New York: Routledge. 
Journal ofthe Associationfor Research on Mothering 1 253 
