Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)
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1824 research outputs found
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Being an Academic Mother during a Pandemic: The Roles of Home and Work on Mental Health
Full text linkThe COVID-19 pandemic affected life for everyone. However, as mothers tend to be the primary caregivers and default parents, early research has shown that mothers were responsible for a disproportionate share of work related to children during the pandemic. Given the oppositional identities of professional academic work and mothering, this increase in parenting for mothers naturally affected their work as academics and likely negatively affected their mental health. Faculty mothers of colour had the added burden of operating in a racist institution as well as contending with racial unrest, an antagonistic president at the time, and higher rates of mortality among Black and brown people from COVID-19. In this project, we use an intersectional approach to evaluate the effects of COVID-19 on academic mothers through the lens of race and age of youngest child, focusing on heightened anxiety and poorer mental health. We utilized a survey administered to collegiate faculty in the United States. We share results from our mixed-methods study, highlighting both quantitative and qualitative results to better tell the story of academic mothers during the pandemic and how these roles during this time affected their career and mental health. 
Social Work and Mothering: Mapping the Intersections of Social Work and Matricentric Feminism
Full text linkThe social construction of motherhood informs and permeates the field of social work through practice, research, and education, yet mothering experiences are often silenced in course curriculums, practice settings, and research agendas. We bring together both our voices and unique experiences as mothers, social work PhD candidates, as well as social worker and art therapist that have worked alongside mothers for many years in our professional landscapes situated in community-based and healthcare settings. Throughout this article, we argue that although the gendered nature of social work has been acknowledged by many scholars over the years—across liberal, Marxist, radical, and socialist feminist perspectives—a critical feminist analysis of mothering that incorporates maternal theory and matricentric feminism is largely absent from social work theory, research, education, and practice. We offer a historical chronological review of literature in which to contextualize current tensions and possibilities at the intersection between the profession of social work, conceptualizations of mothering within social work, and maternal feminist theory within a North American context. We aim to demonstrate how awareness of this history is a vital component of critical practice with mothers and as mothers
Social Welfare Policy in Brazil: The Reproduction of Gender Stereotypes and the Invisibility of Work Overload for Mothers
Full text linkThis article approaches how gender stereotyping shapes social welfare policy implementation in harmful ways in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Social welfare workers were submitted to online questionnaires and personal interviews who revealed that gender stereotypes are present in the implementation of social welfare policy. Therefore, these practices end up reinforcing the sexual division of labour inside the family itself. Within this context, the majority of users of social welfare are women. The social welfare policy contributes to the maintenance of stereotyped gender roles when they attribute the care of children and the household chores to women rather than providing the needed support for the family to be able to protect their family members. The article concludes that the social welfare policy is contradictory because it defends the maternity protection. However, the structural context of rights violation experienced by these mothers—such as lack of daycare, lack of an adequate income, and poor living conditions—is dismissed during the intervention process. Therefore, women are considered responsible for the fulfilment of the program conditions, and if they fail, they are considered responsible and may lose their social benefit, reproducing the cycle of victimization and poverty
Mothering and Othering: Experiences of African American Professional Women
Full text linkAfrican American women have been the backbone of American society. Since 1619, they have been and remain a stable force upon which families, communities, and institutions have been built and nurtured. In many cases, this role of nurturer has transcended forced servitude and is now both a personal and professional choice, which is demonstrated through her roles as mother and social worker. Unfortunately, this positioning has required many African American women who are mothers and social workers to address demands associated with the intersections of their roles including role overload, role strain, and role confusion. In addition to challenges faced by role intersections, African American women must simultaneously manage societal issues, including racism, sexism, racial loyalty, racialized oppression and gender biases. Finally, African American women who are mothers and social workers must process internal conflicts associated with certain paradigms, including the strong Black woman, imposter syndrome, and superwoman schema. Given these challenges, there seems to be a dearth of theories that adequately explore the noted intersections for this unique population of African American social workers who operate in multiple spheres. This conceptual article provides some historical context, reviews the relevant literature, explores strengths and gaps in related theoretical frameworks, and examines our experiences to promote the exploration of a comprehensive theory that seeks to explain the nuanced intersections of mothering and othering
Radical Reclamations: Reviving Jewish Birth Practices
Full text linkThis article uses autoethnography to explore a rabbi’s difficult labour and birth experience and how it led her to research on Jewish birth practices. Religious and ethnic birth practices are often elided in patriarchal and Western culture, and the uncovering and reclaiming of such practices are an important site of empowerment for mothers and for women1 whose knowledges have been supressed. Through reclaiming birth practices, there is also a reclamation of traditional knowledge, bodily autonomy, women’s community, and personal empowerment.
In using autoethnography, the author locates herself in the discursive formations of such reclamation and empowerment as well as engages in the Jewish cultural practice of dialogue with text and tradition, thus merging personal, professional, traditional, and transformative research, writing, and practice. 
“Sisters in the Struggle”: Can Postmodern Dance Make Space for Dancer Parents?
Full text linkForged in the wake of the antiestablishment and antibourgeois movements of the 1960s, postmodern dance in the United States has long prided itself on its nonelitism and its inclusivity of dancer body types and life experiences. However, even today, the postmodern professional dance world is particularly unhospitable to dancers with children and dancers who are pregnant. In this article, I describe a meeting between female dancers with dependents who were grappling with how the dance world might make room for dancer parents. In this meeting, they were offered the challenge to become “solidarity for themselves” and to carve out spaces together to make dance culture more parent centred, or at least more parent friendly. I discuss why this challenge was met with apprehension and skepticism by some professional dancers with children and why matters of dancers’ and choreographers’ race complicated their conversations about maternal rights and dance professionalism. I proceed to discuss how some dance communities (especially those of colour) have created their own systems of pre-, ante- and postnatal care within their professional dance spaces, which fully avoid allopathic medicine and rely instead on webs of somatic practitioners and their own body intuition to monitor and optimize their health. For example, dancers become trained as doulas and organize community meetups and movement classes, in which individuals can enjoy a safe space and are encouraged to represent their personal experiences through their moving bodies. I interpret this culture making through dance as an important intervention in healthcare as well as in the postmodern professional dance world
A Balancing Act: Unlearning and Embracing Chinese Immigrant Mothering
Full text linkAs a Chinese immigrant, motherhood involves unlearning patterns of thinking and behaving from one’s upbringing and learning healthier ways to mother. Many view Chinese mothers as tiger moms, a harmful stereotype that does little to embrace the diversity of Chinese motherhood. This article draws on my lived experiences as an immigrant mother to my three American-born Chinese children. For me, the act of immigrant mothering entails a delicate balancing act where Chinese and American values often conflict. These conflicts highlight the racial inequities in how mothers are allowed to mother and experience motherhood. There is no one way to mother, but the heteronormative white, middle-class mothering style is dominant in how society defines good mothers. Little has been written about racial equity among mothers and how motherhood often details negotiating between culture-specific and American norms. My article seeks to explore racial equity and widen the boundaries of motherhood by exploring the impact of immigrant mothering practices, navigating Chinese and American cultures as an immigrant mother, reflecting on how my immigrant mothering has affected my American-born children, and lastly, understanding my cultural history and its influence on my Chinese identity. To widen the rhetoric on mothering, we must engage the narratives of racially diverse mothers to understand motherhood’s multiplicities and complexities. Only then will we have a more inclusive view of motherhood that will build racial equity to benefit women and children
Mothering in the Context of Child Welfare
Full text linkThe predominant definition of motherhood in Canada, and Western society, reflects the notion of intensive mothering, whereby mothers are expected to manage their responsibilities as the primary caregiver of their children and household while maintaining employment outside of the home. This notion, which is based on a middle-class and Eurocentric construct, leaves little consideration for the experiences of mothers from diverse socioeconomic and ethno-racial backgrounds. Mothers involved in child welfare for allegations of abuse are challenged with identifying with this definition of motherhood, as they face stigmatization by their communities and shame for how they care of their children. Research affirms that mothers in child welfare are disproportionately younger and have a lower-economic status compared to the general population, in addition to having higher rates of homelessness, unemployment, and mental health concerns. Our research sought to answer the following question: How do the narratives of mothers with child welfare involvement challenge good mothering ideology? Our qualitative, exploratory study collaborates with three mothers in Calgary, Alberta, who over the course of a series on in-depth interviews shared stories of the mothering they experienced in childhood, the challenges in their own mothering, which resulted in having their children apprehended by the state, and finally their journey to regaining custody of their children. These women’s narratives highlighted their resiliency in reclaiming their identities as good mothers while challenging socially constructed beliefs about women and mothering. Our intention is that the women’s stories can inform child welfare policies and procedures to best support diverse families involved in the child welfare system
Empowered Transformation: How Social Workers Can Help Mothers with Addictions
Full text linkMothers are subject to intense cultural and social expectations about their role. For some, attempting to meet those expectations leads to, or worsens, mental health problems, including addiction. Mothers living with addictive behaviours are one of the most stigmatized groups in our society. With their anti-oppressive practice lens, clinical social workers are in an ideal position to offer effective treatment to mothers living with addictions. However, social workers must be mindful that some often used treatment approaches can enhance stigma, complicate relapse recovery, and promote reductionistic understandings of addiction. To mitigate these risks, this article espouses an anti-oppressive, matricentric, and feminist approach to discussing the mother identity, highlighting where social workers can avoid traps that disempower women. We then critique two addiction treatment approaches that are used to increase motivation for change: the nostalgia approach and motherhood as an anchor. Finally, we share our empowered transformation model, which social workers can weave into addiction treatment with mothers to effect multilevel change. A case study illustrates the use of the empowered transformation model