2nd and 3rd year core modules/courses on Family Policy and Comparative Social Policy. Also Women's Studies - 2nd and 3rd year core component of social policy. Challenging Motherhood examines contemporary social and legal constructions of motherhood in the context of a more general discussion of the future of families in Western and British society. The text looks at the ways in which Motherhood has come to be scrutinised and challenged according to a particular set of Western ideals as to what motherhood could and should entail.
Author's Acknowledgements -- Publisher's Acknowledgements -- Chapter I -- Theorizing mothers: a Foucauldian approach -- Foucault's theory of discourse -- Foucault and normalization -- A feminist critique of Foucault -- Returning the Subject to the subject of women's poverty -- The utility of experience -- Talking principles/evacuating the Subject -- Chapter 2 -- Dissident mothers -- The case of the lesbian mother -- No sex for the single mother -- The case of the teenage mother -- Summary -- Chapter 3 -- Mothers know best? Not in this court -- The judicial response -- The legal framework for decisions -- Right to contact: the case law -- Prospects for reform -- Summary -- Chapter 4 -- Fathers as 'victims': mounting a challenge to mothers -- Fathers in absentia: not guilty? -- Legitimate(d) father absence? -- Problematizing father absence in lone parent households -- Constructing the 'feckless father' -- The construction of a 'new' fatherhood -- Constructing the climate for change -- Summary -- Chapter 5 -- 'For the sake of the children': occluding maternal desire -- The study -- Trying mother: the case of Heidi Colwell -- The significance of 'needs' discourse -- Summary -- Beyond conclusion: some notes for the future -- Bibliography -- Index.
Biography
Julie Wallbank
