Interdisciplinary and intersectional in emphasis, the Routledge Companion to Motherhood brings together essays on current intellectual themes, issues, and debates, while also creating a foundation for future scholarship and study as the field of Motherhood Studies continues to develop globally.
This Routledge Companion is the first extensive collection on the wide-ranging topics, themes, issues, and debates that ground the intellectual work being done on motherhood. Global in scope and including a range of disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, literature, communication studies, sociology, women's and gender studies, history, and economics, this volume introduces the foundational topics and ideas in motherhood, delineates the diversity and complexity of mothering, and also stimulates dialogue among scholars and students approaching from divergent backgrounds and intellectual perspectives.
This will become a foundational text for academics in Women's and Gender Studies and interdisciplinary researchers interested in this important, complex and rapidly growing topic. Scholars of psychology, sociology or public policy, and activists in both university and workplace settings interested in motherhood and mothering will find it an invaluable guide.
"This book is indeed a companion, a wise and wide-ranging guide for anyone who wants to spend time exploring the world of contemporary motherhood studies. Across topics and disciplines, it accompanies the reader to the most engaging sites in the field."
-- Joan B. Wolf, Associate Professor, Women's and Gender Studies, Texas A&M University, and author of Is Breast Best? Taking on the Breastfeeding Experts and the New High Stakes of Motherhood.
"This is an anthology whose time has come! The editors have garnered an extraordinary number of international scholars to discuss motherhood from a broad range of perspectives, more than one might ever have thought possible. Adrienne Rich's pioneering distinction between motherhood as institution and ideology versus motherhood as experience and identity structures the volume's chapters on diverse mothering/motherhood concerns across the globe. The volume will guide Motherhood Studies for years to come."
-- E. Ann Kaplan, Distinguished Professor of English and Women's Gender, and Sexuality, Studies, Stony Brook University
