When COVID-19 hit, some commentators hailed it as an opportunity to revolutionise gender roles in heterosexual couples. But as public life froze overnight and homes became schools, daycare centres and offices, mothers have been placed under more pressure, not less. Our new study on workers in the United States shows that in the first months…
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What is the role of a mother? And how does the relationship between a mother and her child shape that child’s life and actions? What makes some children grow up to be like their mothers, while others are motivated to turn away and do something completely different? The new book Things My Mother Taught Me…
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‘When are you planning to have kids?’ I’d bet you good money that every woman has been asked this question at some point in her life. More than once. This question is almost always well-intentioned but, at the same time, works on the assumption that not only is procreation inevitable, but something that every rational…
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There have been countless studies on working mothers: the pros and cons, the implications, the inevitable stress, anxiety and guilt that come with the decision to return to work. After years of exhaustive debate and the tired, boring insistence that women can ‘have it all’, Harvard University has conducted what may be the most comprehensive…
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Thanks Mum: a Harvard University study has found the daughters of mothers employed in paid work are themselves paid more and have better career opportunities. Researchers surveyed people from 24 countries, including Australia, to deliver the result smashing social stereotypes of paid work away from the home being detrimental to a child’s upbringing. ‘In…
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A 20-year-old New South Wales woman banned from breastfeeding has had the legal decision overturned. The ban emerged during a custody battle for her young son, with the injunction’s reason cited as a recent tattoo potentially exposing the child to blood borne illnesses, including HIV, through feeding. This ban was enforced despite the woman testing…
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The ‘joys’ of motherhood are undoubtedly lost on me. The inverted commas that I have deliberately and strategically placed around ‘joys’ say it all. Mind you, I have never experienced being a mother for myself, so of course I wouldn’t know. But I have my conspiracy theories. I have heard too many horror stories…
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I’m not a mother so I’ve never been celebrated on Mother’s Day. I did, however, celebrate 27 Mother’s Days with my mum, until she died in 2006 from breast cancer. I think about my mum every day. Her absence from my life weighs heavily. My relationship to my grief changes over time but I…
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Growing out of the Women’s Art Movements of the 1970s, a new movement of Mother Artists is gathering strength in Australia and internationally. Intertwined: Exhibiting Mother Artists, at the Australian National University School of Art in Canberra, shows the range of social concerns that feminist mother artists are aesthetically and culturally addressing: What is a…
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There are few crimes worse than killing your own child – it appears to be an action which goes directly against our nature. And yet, on average, twenty-seven children are killed by their parents in Australia each year—with around half of them murdered by their mother. The question of what would drive…
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My mum once told me that when she quit her job after my younger sister was born to look after my sisters and me full time it was the happiest time of her life. But to really understand that statement you need to know a little bit about my mum. In the speech she gave…
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Pick up any magazine or news tabloid or stroll across a website and there will be the latest gossip on which star is pregnant, may be pregnant, or trying cover up pregnancy. Society loves famous people having famous babies. Then the famous babies are born, are often given unusual names, and are set for a…
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What is it about our society that is so hellbent on reducing mothers (especially new mothers), to soft, cuddly Mrs Brady types whose sole purpose is to produce milk for their nascent offspring, devote the entire fibre of their being to their children and stop caring about themselves? Why are we so threatened by women…
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Fun fact: Since the Australian Labor Government introduced its paid parental leave scheme just over two years ago, 300,000 women – at a rate of about 10,000 a month – have accepted the 18-week minimum-wage payment. Recent data suggests that fewer than 20 fathers a month have taken up the leave. But is anyone surprised?…
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