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

Minaker, Joanne C.

book reviews
 journal of the motherhood initiative             275 
When Mothers Kill
Interviews from Prison
Michelle Oberman and Cheryl Meyer.
New York: New York University Press, 2008.
Reviewed by Joanne C. Minaker
The notion of a mother killing her own child shakes the foundation 
of our core conceptions of love, trust, and altruism.  And yet, those 
women spoke to us not as monsters, but as people who were capable 
of kindness … and who undertook, day by day … the central task 
in their lives, as in our own: creating a bond of love and connection 
with others. (141)
In July 2011, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of killing her two-year-old 
daughter, Caylee, a case which seemed to captivate national television view-
ers for three years. The legal verdict failed, however, to exonerate Anthony 
as a “baby killer” and a bad mother in the public imagination. She was on 
trial in the courtroom, in the wider society, and on social media. Many asked 
“how could a mother behave like this?” The mother who takes her child’s life 
is a woman who is deemed doubly deviant, having broken criminal law and 
transgressed femininity. Other high profile cases, such as Andrea Yates and 
Susan Smith, strike a similar chord. They simultaneously contradict and reify 
a belief in women’s presumed natural role as nurturing, caring mothers.
In cases of maternal filicide—when a mother kills her child—popular and 
media discourse conflates what she has done with who she is.  In When Mothers 
Kill: Interviews from Prison, Michelle Oberman and Cheryl Meyer offer a 
different, seldom-heard perspective.  The authors argue that “[s]o great is the 
horror of their acts in killing their children that we tend to view them as non-
mothers. We reduce the days, months, and years of their mothering to the 
fact they killed their children” (84).  Based on their interviews with 37 women 
incarcerated in the Ohio Reformatory for Women for killing their children 
(out of approximately 1,800 inmates only 69 women were so charged), Ober-
man and Meyer encourage readers to direct their attention to the behaviour 
of the women rather than malign the women themselves. 
By telling untold stories, the book seeks to humanize the women incarcer-
ated for filicide. Nancy, who smothered her newborn baby, admits, “I am not 
a vicious person, but I did this with my own hands” (13).  Indeed, the inter-
views are “as enlightening as they are terrifying” (2), and the book’s great-
book reviews
276             volume 3,  number 1
est contribution is its recontextualizing of the problem of maternal filicide. 
When viewed from a wider socio-economic context, the story of maternal 
filicide offers a cautionary tale about marginalized motherhood and illumi-
nates how the women’s own mothers affected their lives, especially as young 
moms. When Mothers Kill depicts young mothers who felt isolated and vul-
nerable, but had only an intrusive state agency to turn to for help rather than 
a caring community or positive family relationships. The analytical discussion 
in chapter six on social and institutional structures that framed the moth-
ers’ lives raises important questions about the role of state institutions and 
agents as precursors to the women’s crimes. The authors’ claim that lack of 
social supports impinged upon the young mothers’ ability to cope with the 
stress of motherhood. Oberman and Meyer demonstrate how the mothers, 
as children, “moved into and out of reach of the system, in part by their own 
choices, and in part because of the narrowly defined duties of those who held 
up the safety net” (103). This poignant remark underscores the complicated 
encounters between women and the state and the narratives gathered here 
show that the boundaries between women’s victimization and their offending 
are often blurred (for example, 26 women were themselves abused). 
Although the authors have done well to situate the women in socio-eco-
nomic terms, more attention could have been paid to questions of race and 
ethnicity. It is notable that Anthony, Smith, and Yates—all cases with much 
media coverage—were all white women. Oberman and Meyer recognize the 
salience of socio-economic status, yet with 40 percent of the sample being 
women of colour, the reader is left to ponder the importance of race and what 
role inequalities of class, race, and gender play in the systems in which moth-
ers’ lives are embedded.
Oberman and Meyer offer a book that treads new ground and will be of 
interest to scholars, practitioners, social workers, and criminal justice profes-
sionals who work with and/or study mothers who have “few of the resources 
they need to build stable lives” (83). This book lays bare the fundamental 
need to address the underlying systemic social issues—gender violence, rac-
ism, and poverty—that lie at the heart of the challenges faced by marginal-
ized mothers. Only then will children and their mothers begin to find the 
social supports they need to build loving, trusting, and healthy relationships.


English

When Mothers Kill: Interviews from Prison

Takševa, Tatjana

The Commercialization of Motherhood and Mothering in the Context of Globalization: Anglo-American Perspectives

Kruk, Laurie

 journal of the motherhood initiative       261 
Vaudevillians of Time
laurie kruk
“The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon….”
    —Shakespeare, As You Like It
All right: it’s been said—
something about the seven ages of humanity
and the riddle of the Sphinx—
better in blank verse, Sophocles’ chorus,
than bitten-off chuckles
of family jokes-cum-anecdotes,
delivered with axiomatic laughter. 
But there’s the moment when his father,
recovered, much smaller,
from five weeks denied  his wife’s baking,
pricked and prodded in hospital,
stopped after Horton’s 
to unlock the mailbox
and his pants   fell down. 
Fumbled to drag up his respectability
—just after the neighbour’s friendly honk, and wave—
hide the yellowing shorts
the Missus nagged him to throw out,
while standing at the door, she yodelled
“Y’ remember the milk, Hon?” 
laurie kruk
262       volume 3, number 1
Or the moment when his mother
a month after knee surgery,
put on her husband’s old Sorels
and staggered through February snow to retrieve
a wind-blown blue-box. Dragging it, 
slipped, fell down:
turtled in the foot-deep snow,
her new metal knees locked
so that she cursed and sputtered
and morning commuters whizzed by
a foot from her self-dug hollow
until the neighbour’s dog sniffed over
let her drag herself up
on his dirty yellow fur, soaked and growling.
And her mother
who volunteered to take the six-year-old
through the Carnival Funhouse, declaiming
before the bored lineup:
“She shouldn’t have to go by herself!”
Once shut up in the dark corridor
the floor split into panels, lifting, then dropping,
mocking her steps, causing   breath 
to stick in her mouth, and legs
to separate: one above, one below, clinging to the life-raft
she could neither get on nor climb off—
granddaughter skipping ahead, while half-falling, she calls to no-one
“Turn it off, please—I’m stuck!” 
A shadow appears beside her
seizes a lever, bangs it down, so all is still
except for the disappointed wail of children,
and he drags her out, like a citizen’s arrest, 
never letting go her trembling wrist.
“Can we do it again, Grandma?” someone shouts
far below
as the world spins around her, grinning.
folio
 journal of the motherhood initiative       263 
Or even: me
beginning the historic fire tower climb
all four of us,
bringing the three-year-old along
with a firm grip on her hand, saying
“One step at a time—don’t rush—Mom’s got you”
And at the third landing
where it begins to climb
in an inverted gyre
wind lifts the girl’s summer dress
hats are threatened
and more and more of the forest below peeks through,
glimmer of lakes, shining, vertigo
and the child says,
“Just a little further Mom,”
pulling her up—
and there is only trust
as they reach the top
and Mom wipes her neck, 
crouching under the lookout
while the kids jump up to see
the parking lot, their green van, 
beckoning like a lake.
What is this seltzer in the face,
finger in the eye,
the clown’s endless slide toward ignominy
on a giant banana peel
done without laugh track or applause? 
The Sphinx has been answered
Oedipus is blind
and given enough time,
we are the punch-line. 


Vaudevillians of Time

Filion, Marianne

book reviews
 journal of the motherhood initiative             269 
that positions them as inadequate parents unable to comprehend the racial 
realities of their children’s lives. 
 Part two deals with narratives of personhood. Linda L. Layne theorizes 
the “realness” problem of a pregnancy that does not end in a live birth (114). 
She looks at how parents use a range of material artifacts to construct ideas 
of fetal personhood and to validate parenting experiences that take place in a 
culture of silence surrounding pregnancy loss. Marcia Claire Inhorn explores 
the ways in which male-dominated biomedicine, coupled with discourses of 
religious and moral regulation, limits access to fertility treatments for poor 
women in Egypt. Gail Landsman critically examines narratives of mothering 
children with disabilities, and documents the active role of mothers in recast-
ing these narratives.
Motherhood as an institution shaped by the socio-legal arena is discussed 
in part three. Susan Dalton offers a critique of California’s laws that pro-
mote institutional heterosexuality and render non-biological mothers le-
gally invisible. Diana Mulinari investigates motherwork as a political site 
for gender struggle in Nicaragua, emphasizing how maternity is caught up 
in the cultural contradiction of being ideologically reified and practically 
devalued. Finally, Deborah Connolly argues against romanticization of a 
mythical “good mother” by examining how homeless mothers are impacted 
by discourses that surround the conventional model of a middle-class, nu-
clear American family. 
Overall, the careful research presented in this book validates the ability of 
mothers to actively negotiate and resist culturally dominant discourse. The 
primary strength of this highly readable and informative collection lies in 
its analysis of how the social hierarchies of gender, race, class, sexuality, and 
nationalism intersect to produce a wide variety of ideas about contemporary 
maternity.
Maternal Pedagogies:
In and Outside the Classroom
Deborah Byrd and Fiona J. Green, eds.
Bradford, on: Demeter Press, 2011.
Reviewed by Marianne Filion
The difficulty in commenting with any degree of depth or precision on an 
edited work is considerable, but this is particularly so in the case of Maternal 
book reviews
270             volume 3,  number 1
Pedagogies: In and Outside the Classroom. The breadth of this compilation is 
striking, simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting. From personal narrative 
to literary analysis, ethnographic research to accounts of activism, this volume 
covers an impressive, if at times overwhelming, range of content and method. 
In their editorial introduction, Deborah Byrd and Fiona J. Green write 
that “maternal pedagogies are always in flux, always performative … and em-
ployed by individuals and groups whose positionality, values, goals, and strat-
egies are ever-shifting” (2). The reality of this instability is woven throughout 
each contribution, mirroring its presence in the broader field of education. 
Each piece makes a unique contribution to theorizing maternal pedagogies, 
but the overriding strength of this volume lies in its insistent problematiza-
tion of such theorizing practice. The normative notions of the good mother 
and teacher, child and learner are repeatedly underlined and undermined to 
underscore the ever-evolving nature and practice of education. 
Maternal Pedagogies is divided into five sections, each comprised of three 
essays. The first section critically assesses a myriad of problems with cultur-
ally embedded assumptions about fertility, gender, and the right to maternity. 
Section two sheds light on the learner as a recipient of maternal pedagogies. 
Of particular interest is Walsh and Harrison’s article exploring the use of cul-
tural capital in maternal activism in the face of children’s disability within the 
educational system. Section three explores the experience of learning from 
one’s children and students. It is notably, and perhaps unavoidably, touching 
and informative.  Section four deals with pedagogical othermothering.  Byrd’s 
account of service learning pedagogy, as well as Hutner’s description of her 
experience as an academic mother, ecofeminist teacher, and cancer survivor 
represents praxis at its finest.  The final section of this volume deals with the 
passing on of maternal pedagogies.  Concepts axiomatic to education, namely 
critical dialogue, creativity, responsibility, and hope, are explored throughout 
the section.
Felt across the essays is the fundamental, often unspoken discomfort with 
the fact that education is unavoidably a normative activity.  We educate our 
children, our students, and ourselves according to our conception of what 
is good and right. We do this critically, consciously, and deliberately, as 
teachers and mothers, academics and activists. What is more, we educate 
knowing that we may be wrong, that we could, at least theoretically, do 
better, and that we will be challenged by our students, our children, our col-
leagues and peers.  The essays in Maternal Pedagogies, and the stories they 
recount, actively resist re-inscribing unjust power relations, argue against 
dominant patriarchal practices and assumptions, and self-consciously call 
out the privilege inherent in reading, writing, formalized education, and 
academic discourse. 
book reviews
 journal of the motherhood initiative             271 
Though the relationship between education and mothering in its myriad 
of forms and contexts is palpable, maternal pedagogies is a remarkably under-
explored concept. The expanse of topics, theories, and style in this volume is 
testament to the need for continued and vast exploration of maternal pedago-
gies. The vastness of this collection also means that it will be of interest to a 
wide range of readers who may, at one time or another, have occupied the po-
sition of child or parent, student or teacher, historian or literary theorist. Like 
a child, this volume is full of probing questions, compassion, and wisdom.
Through the Maze of Motherhood: 
Empowered Mothers Speak
Erika Horwitz.
Bradford, on: Demeter Press, 2011.
Reviewed by Kathleen M. Pape
Too many mothers in the early twenty-first Western world are plagued by 
the mythical notion of the perfect mother. Myths of this type arise within 
a philosophy of totalization and universalism in which diversity is suspect.
Totalizing assertions such as “all mothers should…” or “any mother would…” 
limit the ways in which mothers can effectively mother. These prescriptions 
also ignore the ways individual children need to be mothered, and dismiss the 
relationships and unique arrangements that mothers and their children create 
that benefit themselves and their communities.
In Through the Maze of Motherhood: Empowered Mothers Speak, Erika Hor-
witz describes the complex experience of resisting the dominant discourse of 
motherhood in the Western world. From her interviews with fifteen moth-
ers, Horwitz presents ways to “redefine our roles as well as our perceptions of 
what a mother is” (63). In describing and considering the experiences of her 
interviewees, Horwitz eschews critical judgment. Instead, she acknowledges 
that the act of resistance is influenced and constrained by one’s socio-histori-
cal context.  This allows the reader to see the subtlety and courage present in 
acts of resistance, and the way these acts may lead to new discoveries.  
Although encouraged by Horwitz to read with an open mind, I often 
found it difficult to do so. Horwitz’s interviewees challenge dominant moth-
ering practices. In describing resistance, Horwitz touches upon many of the 


Maternal Pedagogies: In and Outside the Classroom

Esnard, Talia

“The Personal Plan is Just as Important as the Business Plan”: A Feminist Social Constructivist-Rationalist Choice Approach to Female Entrepreneurship

Whiting, Kathryn

Commodifying the Fetus

O'Hagan, Clare

Who Cares? The Economics of Childcare in Ireland

Holland, Mary Rita

Funding and Framing Families: An Analysis of the Discursive Foundations of Family Allowance and the Universal Child Care Benefit

Gregory, Elizabeth

The Economics and Politics of Delayed Birth Timing

Novoselova, Veronika

book reviews
268             volume 3,  number 1
Ideologies and Technologies of Motherhood: Race, Class, Sexuality, and National-
ism illuminates how meanings and realities of motherhood are shaped by var-
ious cultural, economic, and political forces.  This collection of essays is struc-
tured around three areas of inquiry: ideologies of racial difference, narratives 
of personhood, and socio-legal parameters of motherhood. The book consists 
of qualitative sociological and anthropological research projects that present 
the diverse voices of homeless mothers, adoptive mothers, surrogate moth-
ers, single mothers, mothers of children with disabilities—in other words, 
mothers who do not meet normative expectations and are often perceived as 
existing outside of the cultural ideal of “good” mothering.  Taken together, the 
essays explore motherhood as a socially constructed and historically situated 
institution, showing us how “mother” itself becomes a highly contested and 
ideologically loaded term.
Part one addresses motherhood as it is affected by cultural sets of ideas 
about race. The common theme running through the essays written by Chris-
tine Ward Gailey, Heléna Ragoné, and France Widdance Twine is that of 
redefinitions of kinship. In her well-researched piece, Gailey critically inter-
rogates narratives of United States adoption and analyzes how they are en-
gendered by a nexus of race, gender, class, and nationality. Ragoné discusses 
the growing practice of gestational surrogacy and its role in transfiguring no-
tions of race while at the same time challenging “natural” aspects of reproduc-
tion (65).  Twine’s essay focuses on the experiences of race and motherhood 
by white birth mothers of black children in British multiracial families. Twine 
reveals that mothers develop agentic antiracist strategies in response to a logic 
once, Mother Earth was recognized as a living, borderless entity.
Bolen’s work lacks a strong theoretical framework, comprehensive second-
ary references, and empirical tables, but Urgent Message for Mother conveys a 
powerful message that socio-economic issues must be addressed in the inter-
est of peace and environmental sustainability.
Ideologies and Technologies of Motherhood:
Race, Class, Sexuality, and Nationalism
Heléna Ragoné and France Winddance Twine, eds.
New York: Routledge, 2000.
Reviewed by Veronika Novoselova
book reviews
 journal of the motherhood initiative             269 
that positions them as inadequate parents unable to comprehend the racial 
realities of their children’s lives. 
 Part two deals with narratives of personhood. Linda L. Layne theorizes 
the “realness” problem of a pregnancy that does not end in a live birth (114). 
She looks at how parents use a range of material artifacts to construct ideas 
of fetal personhood and to validate parenting experiences that take place in a 
culture of silence surrounding pregnancy loss. Marcia Claire Inhorn explores 
the ways in which male-dominated biomedicine, coupled with discourses of 
religious and moral regulation, limits access to fertility treatments for poor 
women in Egypt. Gail Landsman critically examines narratives of mothering 
children with disabilities, and documents the active role of mothers in recast-
ing these narratives.
Motherhood as an institution shaped by the socio-legal arena is discussed 
in part three. Susan Dalton offers a critique of California’s laws that pro-
mote institutional heterosexuality and render non-biological mothers le-
gally invisible. Diana Mulinari investigates motherwork as a political site 
for gender struggle in Nicaragua, emphasizing how maternity is caught up 
in the cultural contradiction of being ideologically reified and practically 
devalued. Finally, Deborah Connolly argues against romanticization of a 
mythical “good mother” by examining how homeless mothers are impacted 
by discourses that surround the conventional model of a middle-class, nu-
clear American family. 
Overall, the careful research presented in this book validates the ability of 
mothers to actively negotiate and resist culturally dominant discourse. The 
primary strength of this highly readable and informative collection lies in 
its analysis of how the social hierarchies of gender, race, class, sexuality, and 
nationalism intersect to produce a wide variety of ideas about contemporary 
maternity.
Maternal Pedagogies:
In and Outside the Classroom
Deborah Byrd and Fiona J. Green, eds.
Bradford, on: Demeter Press, 2011.
Reviewed by Marianne Filion
The difficulty in commenting with any degree of depth or precision on an 
edited work is considerable, but this is particularly so in the case of Maternal 


Ideologies and Technologies of Motherhood: Race, Class, Sexuality, and Nationalism