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

Matthews-Kane, Bridgit

Book Reviews 
Motherland: Writings by Irish American Women 
About Mothers and Daughters 
Caledonia Kearns, Editor. 
W i a m  Morrow, 1999 
Reviewed by Bridget Matthews-Kane 
When I was in high school, my father gave me a dog-eared article that 
analyzed the dynamics of the Irish American family. As I read it, a mix of 
fascination and horror crept over me because it seemed as if someone had been 
following my family around, observing our every move, listening in on our 
conversations and, even worse, creeping around inside our brains. How was this 
possible, I wondered? Wasn't I, the great-granddaughter of Irish immigrants, 
far enough removed from Ireland to have shed these personality traits and 
patterns of behavior? I put the article aside, but continued to ponder how 
ethnicity could influence the most immediate, personal, and seemingly unique 
relationships in my life. 
Perhaps my fascination with this led me to pick up Caledonia Kearns' 
Motherland Writings by Irish Amrriran Women About Mothers and Daughters. 
This well-chosen anthology contains fiction, autobiography, and political 
writings from well-known authors such as M.F.K. Fisher, Anna Quindlen, 
Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Mary Gordon, newer voices such as Lisa Carey 
and Karin Cook, and more neglected, out-of-print writers such as Elizabeth 
Gurley Flynn and Ellin Mackay Berlin. An appendix supplies succinct biogra- 
phies on the book's Irish American and Irish immigrant writers. While 
weighed more towards contemporary stories, the well-chosen assortment 
contains twenty-four pieces from the past seventy-five years. 
As the subtitle suggests, the stories focus on relationships between 
mothers and daughters. Besides this central theme, issues of guilt, faith, 
loyalty, tradition, silence, secrets, and storytelling resonate through the book. 
The range of contributions is matched by the quality. Several of the best 
stories come from memoirs; in an excerpt from "A Likely Story: One Summer 
with Lillian Hellman," Rosemary Mahoney recounts her childhood with her 
alcoholic mother and in an excerpt from another memoir, Mary Cantwell's 
"Manhattan, When I Was Young," the author relates her bout with postpar- 
tum depression. Another particularly fine piece is Maeve Brennan's short 
story T h e  Eldest Child," about the loss of a new-born infant. Included as 
well are humorous pieces: an excerpt on guilt and goldfish from Martha 
Manning's "Chasing Grace: Reflections of a Catholic Girl, Grown Up;" a 
clever piece by Jean Kerr, "The Child as Houseguest," on returning adult 
212 1 VoJume I, Number I 
Book Rcviws 
children; and M.F.K Fisher's story of her mother's relationship with the local 
librarian, "Mother and 'Miss E.'" 
While this fine collection presents a unique opportunity for readers to trace 
the faint patterns of ethnic behavior through the anthology the same way I, 
years ago, traced them through the whole of my own family, the universal 
appeal of these accessible and moving tales is sure to please a more general 
readership simply interested in the complex and rich relationships between 
mothers and daughters. 
Maternal Justice: Miriam Van Waters and the 
Female Reform Tradition 
Estelle B. Freedman 
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996 
Reviewed by Beth Ann Bryant-Richards 
Estelle B. Freedman's biography ofwomen's prison reform leader Miriam 
Van Waters offers a glimpse into women's involvement in social work in the 
decades following the Jane Addams generation. Freedman manages to cover an 
amazing amount of historical ground in her superbly researched work Al- 
though Freedman undoubtedly intended her book for a scholarly audience, any 
reader would enjoy this compelling story of a remarkable and charismatic 
woman. 
Freedman begins her narrative by examining Van Waters's early days as a 
caretaker of her family, which sets a pattern for her entire life as a mother figure 
for incarceratedwomen. The author takes us through Van Waters's childhood, 
which she spent as a minister's daughter with a strong sense of responsibility for 
others. Our extremely bright and curious heroine excels as an undergraduate at 
the University of Oregon and remains there for a master's degree. Her 
matriculation at Clark University in Massachusetts, however, finds the young 
idea1isticPh.D. studentunder the thumb ofan egotistical, conservative advisor. 
Van Waters's struggles to gain a solid foothold in the midst of academic 
quicksand would resonate with any late-twentieth century graduate student. 
In  part as a result of her difficulties at Clark, Van Waters turned her 
professional sights away from academia and to work in juvenile delinquency 
and women's prison reform. Beginning with her career in California and 
throughout her days as the Superintendent of the Massachusetts Reformatory 
for Women in Framingham, Van Waters took her role as surrogate mother 
with utmost earnestness. She mothered teenaged girls in Juvenile Court in 
California, her professional colleagues and personal friends, her younger 
siblings and family members, adult women inmates, and an adopted daughter, 
Journal ofthe Associationfor Research on Mothering ( 213 


English

Motherland: Writings by Irish American Women About Mothers and Daughters

Mielke, Laura Lynn

Book Reviews 
Maternal Personality, Evolution, and the Sex Ratio: 
Do Mothers Control the Sex of the Infant? 
Valerie J. Grant 
London: Routledge, 1998 
Reviewed by Laura Lynn Mielke 
In Maternal Personality, Evolution, and the Sex Ratio: Do Mothers Control 
the Sex ofthe Infant?, Valerie J .  Grant suggests that indeed the mother does 
control the sex of the infant. Her "maternal dominance hypothesisn runs as 
follows: Women who score high in dominance on a personality test are more 
likely to give birth to boys thanwomen who do not. This is because dominance 
is linked to higher levels oftestosterone in the mother's blood, and testosterone 
affects whether the female reproductive system favors the X- or Y-chromo- 
some-carrying sperm. In addition, stress can increase the amount of testoster- 
one in a woman's bloodstream. Thus, the mother's personality and responsive- 
ness to her environment are connected to her tendency to conceive a boy or a 
girl. This hypothesis makes sense in the evolutionary scheme, implying that 
mothers give birth to the children they are most suited to raise and at the 
appropriate time. The hypothesis also helps explain sex ratios (the ratio of males 
to females born in a given population) of populations under stress (higher than 
average). Grant suggests that ifher hypothesis is correct, each mother "may be 
contributing to a kind of grand-scale psychological homeostasis which both 
sustains and limits psychological difference between men and womenn (5). 
Grant weaves examples from fiction and history and thought-provoking 
questions into her accessible synthesis of scientific studies. She carellly 
explicates research, evaluating each experiment's design and relevance to her 
hypothesis. Grant claims she "gathers aU the relevant informationn from the 
research, and as aresult, her bookincorporates workin bio-statistics, reproduc- 
tive physiology, animal behavior, developmental psychology, evolutionary 
biology, and bio-ethics (1998: 4). 
Maternal Personality, Evolution, and the Sex Ratio repeatedly considers 
evolutionary order and the problems that arise when humans meddle with 
nature's prescriptions. Of particular interest is the final chapter that discusses 
the social effects of technologies that determine, and perhaps one day control, 
the sex of any given fetus. Grant concludes that if a woman conceives a child 
of the sex she is most suited to raise, she should not attempt to preselect its sex. 
She believes that recognition of and respect for the maternal role in infant sex 
determination will correct the "son preferencen in some societies. 
Grant raises troubling questions surrounding developing technologies for 
manipulatingthe sex ratio. She also leaves us with troubling questions about the 
Journalofthe Association for Research on Mothering ( 203 
Book Reviews 
role ofscientific discourse in reinforcing dominant masculine power structures. 
Grant is aware that herlinkingofmaternal dominance and the sex ratio not only 
(re-)naturalizes sex roles many feminists have sought to deconstruct but also 
identifies mothers as the "natural" perpetuators of those sex roles: "There may 
be an irony here," she writes toward the end ofthe book, "in that it appears that 
women themselves, by their very nature, are the ones who maintain psychoso- 
ual sex differences" (180). As a result, she encourages women "to develop those 
potentials that are unique to women," to embrace their psychological-social- 
biological role in evolution (196). In the maternal dominance scheme, differ- 
ences in mothers' personalities "ensure the continuation of psychological sex 
difference, thereby laying the foundations for interpersonal relationships and 
maintaining the basic structure ofhuman society" (198). This "basic structure" 
seems to be women's dominance in the family and men's in society. A t  the heart 
of Grant's hypothesis lies unspoken, politically conservative assumptions about 
the role of women in human society as well as in human evolution. 
Going to an Aunt's: 
Remembering Canada's Homes for Unwed Mothers 
Anne Petrie 
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1998. 
Reviewed by Jeanne Marie Zeck 
Feminists, sociologists, and historians will be pleased to know that Anne 
Petrie has researched a significant and often neglected phenomenon: homes for 
unwed mothers. Petrie's book is a social history of such homes in Canada 
focusing on the period from 1950-1970. Balanced, intelligent, and well- 
researched, this book offers a view of the sometimes well-meaning, but often 
judgmental and punitive culture that found it necessary to hide unmarried 
pregnant women. This is a well-integrated study Petrie draws on the work of 
historians, sociologists, and psychologists; she cites documents and adminis- 
trators from the homes; and, most effectively, she interviews the girls them- 
selves. Petrie's greatest offering is the voices of these women, some of whom 
have never before told their stories. Nearly all of the dozens of women Petrie 
interviewed were coerced into giving up their children for adoption. In her 
book, Petrie focuses on seven women, including herself. She tells each story 
sequentially beginningwith the relationship that resulted in pregnancy through 
to the days and months after each baby's birth. Theirs are powerful voices of 
204 1 Volume I, Number 1 


Maternal Personality, Evolution, and the Sex Ratio: Do Mothers Control the Sex of the Infant?

Davis, Evangeline

The Daughter aka The Adoptee

Sears, Priscilla F.

Cradling Your Mother

Shanahan, Noreen

A Curve of Velvet

Kahn, Robbie Pfeufer

Robbie Pfeufer Kahn 
Family Album/ 1943 
The blades in the mixing bowl whirred. My mother was baking a two 
layered cake with green icing. I t  would look just like the picture on the Betty 
Crocker box, the frosting fluted by strokes of a knife. She baked to make the 
time pass. A slant oflight sliced the room. The floor andwalls met in the corner 
but offered no shelter. A ~ropeller plane droned overhead. My father's ftving 
pilot's teeth. Our country was at war. 
"Daddy home?" I asked my mother's turned back. The flared hem of her 
flowered dress with white buttons down the front swayed as she rubbed wax 
paper smearedwithbutter around the cake pan. Her backstill to me she brushed 
a strand of auburn hair up over the barrette that held it in place. 
Annoyance in her voice she said "Daddy will be home soon." 
1wen;out on the screened-in porchlookingout on a suburban neighborhood 
of Fort Worth, Texas. The warm breeze felt friendly. I climbed on my painted 
wood rocker. It's a brown and white heifer with a merry sideways glance that 
seemed to say "Not only did I jump over the moon, I ran awaywith the dish and 
the spoon." 
I was clean. I had been quiet. Maybe she wouldn't fill the slant oflight with 
angrywords today dividing me from my father. The front door slammed. He's 
home. I clambered off the rocker and ran to him my face open and eager. 
"Daddy." H e  crouched down on his coltishlegs, gathered me in his arms. Lifted 
me high. His pained prominent eyes shone as ifwet. His full lips planted a kiss 
on mine. He  pressed me against his scratchy army shirt. I didn't mind. I 
burrowed into a fold of cloth wanting to stay there forever. Then I looked back 
at my mother. Turned now in my direction her smooth face was impassive, her 
sensuous lips set one against the other as she regarded us with an absent stare. 
What I didn't see was the Yiddish-speaking girl in a homemade dress who 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering 1 107 
Robbie Veufcr Kahn 
stood watching. The girl saw a short father, home from peddling dry goods. He  
crouched down on sturdy bowed legs and lifted her in his muscular arms up to 
his broad Slavic face. Laughing with delight she ran her hands over his shining 
bald crown. 
I scanned my mother's face but could not read it. I t  seemed though there 
would be no angry words today. Later cake with green icing. My heart 
unclenched. For the moment I was safe. 
108 1 Volume I ,  Number 1 


Family Album/ 1943

Comeau, Dawn

Lesbian Nonbiological Mothering: Negotiating an (Un)Familiar Existence

Monson, Connie

"If I Can Do Without a Husband": Lesbian Maternity and H.D.’s Asphodel

Coomarasamy, Sudharshana

Sudharshana Coomarasamy 
Mothers And 
Daug hters-Creating 
Anew 
I had waited for this great occasion for many months. My mother and I had 
anticipated the event with excitement and pride. But when it happened I had 
to hear it from my mother,with that note of accusation in her voice for not being 
present at the auspicious minute! Another stab at my late working hours. 
My daughter had "attained age," she had entered into womanhood and to 
put it plainly, she had started menstruating. When I ran upstairs to find her, she 
rose from her bed to hug me. There was something happening inside me which 
was neither pure joy nor pure sorrow. Yet, I could feel both. She was giggling 
with tears in her eyes. I hugged her to me and traced her face with my fingers 
asking, "Mahd (daughter), does it hurt?" She moulded her body to mine and 
I could feel the negative response in the movement of her head against my 
breast. AU I could think was, "she's too young. Forty years of monthly bleeding, 
cramps and backaches ...." And I hugged her closer. 
When my mother in her usual way said, "let her stay back from school 
today," I responded to it with the memory of what had happened 26 years 
earlier. The scene was different in that I was terrified that I had a wound-how 
else could one explain the sudden evidence ofbright red blood on one's panties. 
I had a geography test, which I didn't want to miss as it was not only my 
favourite subject, but it was also important for my mid-term grades. My 
pleadings with my mother to allow me to go to school-properly bandaged- 
had no effect at all. The verdict was 21 days of solitary confinement with 
restricted diet of eggs, sesame seed oil, eggplant, and black grain pancakes. So, 
I missed that geography test and many other tests for 21 days, while my marks 
dwindled and my body blossomed. 
Twenty-six years later, I sit with my daughter and explain the reasons and 
beliefs behind the special diet and restrictions during the first few weeks 
166 1 Volume l, Number l 
following the initial menstruation. With my mother I negotiated 21 days down 
to seven days. As this had happened on a Monday night, I proposed that we 
have the "bathing ceremony" on Sunday and thereby make it okay for my 
daughter to go back to school after seven days. 
When we made plans about whom to invite, I asked my daughter if she 
would like to invite some of her friends. She was very sure about not wanting 
any of her friends to know. A year ago, when I had anticipated the burst of 
growth at any time, I had explained to my daughter what happens to our bodies 
and the cultural tradition of celebrating it with family and friends. I was 
determined that history should not repeat itself and that my daughter should 
not experience it as an unknown terror. During that discussion we had also 
talked about who she'd like to invite. I remember her saying that she would like 
it to be a party for young women (with the exception of her twin brother). But 
when the opportunity presented itself she did not want to invite her friends. So 
we settled for her maternaluncle, aunts, cousins, and close family friends. Next, 
we had to sort out what to wear. My daughter's question was, as always, "what 
did you wear?" She chose a long skirt with a fitting blouse up to the waist and 
a thaavani (also referred to asUhalf-saree"), the symbol of entering womanhood. 
Just as I had negotiated with my mother to lessen the days of seclusion, my 
daughter negotiatedwith me the length of time she would have to be "dressed- 
upw on the day of the ceremony. Finally, she agreed to wear the "half-saree" for 
two hours whiie al l  the pictures were taken and I agreed that she could change 
into her mini-skirt and bodysuit afterwards. 
Following our Tamil cultural tradition my younger brother (in the absence 
of my elder brother), put milk on my daughter's head to initiate the bathing 
ceremony. Next, my aunts, and other women friends (only married women!) 
followed. My mother and I were the last to bless her, pray that all impurities be 
washed away, and that she grow into a woman. Once the bathing was over, 
wrapping her in a white cloth and with reminders to keep her eyes closed she 
was led into a room where the traditional lamp was lit beside the Bible and a 
picture of Christ. It was tradition to open one's eyes on light and something 
symbolic of one's faith, following the bathing ceremony. Then, it was such joy 
to dress her with the help of a dear friend with flowers, anklets, and bangles to 
match the "half-saree." Once my daughter was ready, her father was called to 
come and bless her. 
From the day she started menstruating my prayer for her has been for a safe, 
violence-free life, filled with respect and dignity. That's my prayer for all our 
daughters here in the West, in the East, in the North, and in the South. 
Journal oftbe Associationfor Research on Mothering ( 167 


Mothers and Daughters - Creating Anew

Camodeca, Gina

What a Blessing She Had Chloroform: The Medical and Social Response to the Pain of Childbirth from 1800 to the Present