Mother Knows Best: Talking Back To The ‘Experts’ edit J. Nathanson and L.C. Tuley, Demeter Press, Toronto.
Maternal Thinking: Philosophy, Politics, Practice edit A. O’Reilly,
Demeter Press, Toronto.
(Both books sold through the Motherhood Institute and Demeter Press (formerly the Association for Research on Mothering (ARM))
http://www.motherhoodinstitute.org
The Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) offers wonderful scholarly analysis and mother-wisdom narratives based on the editors’ own original work and the work of wise women before them and around them. They look at the entrenched – and damaging – societal mother bashing that serves to enforce the perception of maternal inadequacy. “In other words, “experts” serve to inform children that mothers aren’t smart or capable enough to know how to raise their children without being told”. Andrea O’Reilly argues for empowered mothering that celebrates women’s agency – rejecting ‘sacrificial mothering’ for a mothering model that “recognizes that both mothers and children benefit when the mother lives her life and practices mothering from a position of agency, authority, authenticity, and autonomy” (italics are mine as I think this is such a true and powerful statement).
How many times have I heard the obstetrical bias that ‘only stupid women have kids’ or that “women aren’t bright enough to assess their own risks and make their own decisions”? It is an offensive myth and the Association for Research on Mothering blows it out of the water. Quoting Sara Ruddick in Maternal Thinking (an essay in Joyce Trebilcot’s 1984 collection titled Mothering: Essays in Feminist Theory) “The work of mother’s demands that mothers think; out of this need for thoughtfulness, a distinctive discipline emerges”.