MOTHERHOOD ON THE POLITICAL AGENDA

Jill Greenlee's The Political Consequences of Motherhood examines how motherhood has operated in the political landscape of the United States, from the dogged fights for suffrage up to the recent appearance of “soccer moms” and “grizzly mamas” on the national political stage. Greenlee's book charts persuasively the “durability of motherhood in politics” (3) as a platform to draw in women as voters. But she is also critically concerned with the “import of motherhood for women's engagement” (2) in political life. She asks how motherhood changes women's political commitments. Her methods are diverse, including discursive analysis of the maternal rhetorical of political campaigns, careful uses of quantitative datasets charting women's views on a range of social and political issues over time, and, finally, a set of 46 interviews with two groups of women living in the San Francisco Bay area and Boston about their political ambitions and aspirations in the context of motherhood. Greenlee offers these interviews as “windows into how some individuals link their role as a parent to their role as a citizen” (173): they are not intended to be representative, but rather to offer deeper insights into some women's experiences of motherhood and politics.

Greenlee begins her investigation with an account of the ways in which maternal identities and maternal rhetoric have been used in U.S. presidential campaigns throughout the 20th century. In Chapters 2 and 3, she explores the different ways in which ideas about motherhood, and often the wives of presidential candidates, have been positioned in political discourses in order to appeal to female voters. Chapter 2 covers the period of 1920–1976, while Chapter 3 “documents the resurgence of motherhood between 1980 and 2012 as a central way to win women's electoral support” (8) in both Democratic and Republican political campaigns. One of her key observations is that political and social claims drawing on motherhood have often been more successful in achieving policy change for women (such as access to more childcare) than those rooted in paradigms of gender equality and rights. She does note, however, that Democratic political campaigns do emphasize these egalitarian values more than those mounted by the Republican Party. This observation that claims seen as apolitical and grounded in mothers' nurturing aspirations are more successful is important for Greenlee's following chapters. It is also echoed in each of the other books, where questions about mothers and progressive political action are also central.

The latter half of Greenlee's book focuses on questions about whether and how motherhood produces political change for women. In Chapters 4 and 5, she draws on large-scale national datasets evaluating what motherhood does to women's politics, with Chapter 5 offering a longitudinal analysis of the “transformative” effect of motherhood, using panel data that spans the years 1965–1997. In Chapter 6, Greenlee analyzes interviews 46 women about the impact and influence of motherhood on their political perspectives. She examines issues of identity, aspirations, and, importantly, the immersion in “child-centered social networks,” (206) which she argues create material shifts in political thinking and commitment as a result of motherhood. Her findings suggest that motherhood tends to make women more socially conservative around issues such as drug prohibition, for example. However, these material shifts are not linked directly to being a mother; rather, Greenlee identifies the significance of social context and family structure in how mothers take up and understand the connection between politics and motherhood. Chapter 7, “Reasons for Change: How Motherhood Alters Political Attitudes” draws together Greenlee's overall argument, outlining four key ways in which the social experiences, identity shifts, and commitments of motherhood change political views and aims.

Motherhood can, Greenlee argues, act as a platform for political action and a basis to demand access: such a platform could offer a broader view of citizenship that includes women's social and caring obligations rather than exclude them. Yet, she cautions that claims grounded in motherhood can “tether women to the old essentialist argument for participation” (217). This concern also animates The Political Uses of Motherhood in America, by Cynthia Stavrianos, which documents how notions of motherhood and the identification of mothers as a special group of citizens are mobilized in politics. Alongside Greenlee, she asks whether the reliance on maternal rhetoric matters and if so, how?

Stavrianos opens with two critical political moments where motherhood is not only prominent on the U.S. political stage, but is used as the platform for political activism: the 1970 Women's Strike for Equality and the Million Mom March in May of 2000. She is interested particularly in the turn to “maternal framing,” often after demands for equality fail. Chapter 2 offers a sweeping historical analysis of a century of political mobilizations of motherhood, covering some of the same terrain as Greenlee. In Chapter 3, the focus shifts to mothers' groups that are active in the United States, with the aim of illuminating why women organize under the rubric of motherhood and how such groups use maternal frames to articulate and support their objectives.

Stavrianos uses data from U.S. government financial listings, which record information about financial viability and longevity of organizations, to identify robust motherhood groups. She then conducts a series of web-based analyses of mission statements and group actions. The groups she selects range in political convictions and aspirations: Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Million Mom March (MMM), Mothers Against Illegal Aliens (MAIA), Mothers in Charge, and Mainstreet Moms Organize or Bust. Her analysis makes clear that these mothers' groups, whether their overall agendas are conservative or liberal, tend to employ normative and traditional notions of motherhood and often locate themselves as “accidental” activists. This notion of “accidental” activism gives these women, and the movements they head, the benefit of authenticity and experience: often founders are inspired by personal events that in turn motivate others to action. As Stavrianos observes, this tactic maintains motherhood as apolitical: this is valuable because it does not link women's activism to their pre-existing political commitments and divisions; instead, it draws on positive social identifications of motherhood as nurturing. She cautions, however, that it can simultaneously undermine or disempower women, suggesting they are acting on emotion rather than knowledge and a clear policy agenda. She explores the distinctions between conservative and liberal groups, finding there is considerable congruence in the maternal framing and rhetoric used: as she argues, these mothers' groups are not seeking to redefine motherhood, but rather are asking people to join them as mothers seeking social change.

Chapters 4 and 5 delve more deeply into the maternal rhetoric used by these groups, focusing on founders' motivations and how each group's “ideological commitments impact the content of the maternal frames it employs” (9). The analyses offered by Stavrianos show that the “maternal frames [associated with the term] appear to be very politically flexible” (58). Yet, mothers' activist groups, she argues, are not generally using a “frankly feminist approach” in their political armory, where, for example, women's political, legal, and financial equality are explicitly identified as objectives in their agendas. These groups are, rather, relying on normative accounts of mother citizens as vitally concerned with the future of their communities, the environment, and the state of the world for their children.

Both Greenlee and Stavrianos are interested in the distinctions between liberal and conservative mothers. Yet, as their analyses of the motherhood-politics nexus show, distinctions in attitude and approach on the basis of traditional political framework are not always easy to assess. As Greenlee documents, groups all along the political spectrum identify as future-focused and acting on behalf of their children: All therefore agitate for improved education as an issue that cuts across political divisions (177). They concur, however, that the last several decades of the 20th century in the United States have seen the ascendance of more conservative constructions of motherhood both politically and as experienced by women themselves as they mother. Greenlee identifies increased social conservatism (in relation to the prohibition of marijuana, for example) as one of the social transformations linked to motherhood (160). Stavrianos, however, links this shift more directly to the dominance of “intensive mothering” (Hays Reference Hays1998) and its work in reinforcing child-centered mothering identities and practices. The ideology of intensive mothering emphasizes the importance of maternal care for children and of women's presence in the home, reinforcing traditional gender roles and expectations. Despite recognizing that maternal politicking is flexible and adaptable—as it needs to be—and that women will often only mobilize traditional motherhood frames when calls for inclusion and equality have failed to achieve results, both volumes point to the limits of a politics based on traditional notions of motherhood.

MOTHERHOOD MOVEMENTS AND NEW AGENDAS?

In Mothers Unite: Organizing for Workplace Flexibility and the Transformation of Family Life, Jocelyn Crowley investigates the policy ambitions of a range of contemporary U.S. activist groups that operate under the motherhood tagline: Mothers of Pre-schoolers (MOPS), Mocha Moms, Mothers & More, the National Association of Mothers' Centers (NAMC), and MomsRising. Crowley is interested in whether mothers might see themselves as part of a new mothers' movement in the United States. Her particular policy focus is on workplace flexibility (WPF) and the role of modern mothers' organizations (and this movement) in demanding increased flexibility for all. Crowley defines the key elements of WPF as flexible work, time-off options, and career exit and re-entry pathways (4–5). Her intervention in this book is driven by her contention that “American workplace culture is difficult to change” (6).

She selects mothers' groups as her site, rather than parents or any other type of groups, arguing that while WPF affects both parents, “mothers still carry the disproportionate burden of responsibility [in the area of child raising] even after the breastfeeding years are over” (9). In Chapter 2, Crowley analyzes the organizations she has selected and offers a detailed historical account of how these groups emerged in the landscape of U.S. political and social life. These groups are diverse and articulate their political approaches quite differently. Some organizations, such as MOPS, focused on the activities of motherhood as primarily child caring through the lens of Christian conservatism, while others, such as MomsRising, are explicit about demanding equal rights and opportunities at work for mothers.

Crowley introduces us to each of these groups through a critical examination of their web-based material with a focus on assessing their mission, objectives, and aspirations. She then produces a detailed analysis of sociodemographic data of women who join mothers' groups based on two large random sample surveys sent to women. A distinctive feature of women who join mothers' groups—whatever the stated group purposes and objectives—is that they are highly educated, which means, as Crowley points out, that mothers' groups are exceptionally well-resourced (44). One of the outcomes of this pattern is that the views of working-class and low-income mothers are not well represented, as they are not often members. Thus, their particular issues may not be a high priority on the agenda of these groups. Another important observation, and one that is relevant to each of these four volumes to some extent, is that these mothers' groups are overwhelmingly white (40) with the exception in Crowley's study of Mocha Moms, specifically formed to connect African American women who wanted to support each other in mothering.

In Chapter 3, Crowley analyzes data from 125 interviews with group members focusing on why women are motivated to join these groups. Chapter 4 offers an intervention into the much publicized “Mommy Wars,” “the reportedly deeply held divisions between stay-at-home mothers and mothers who actually work for pay” (17). Crowley finds that women generally are not judgmental about other women's employment choices and are clear that there is no “one good mother” (76). However, she does suggest the pervasive stereotypes that distinguish mothers who do paid work and mothers who do not have some validity. These stereotypes tend to suggest that women dedicated to primary care of children are more concerned about child-centered and community issues, such as education and health services. Mothers who work are seen as focused on their own careers and aspirations. Thus, Crowley finds employed mothers are more concerned about workplace policies and employment conditions: for mothers not in the paid workforce, these issues are not pressing.

The final three chapters examine Crowley's central concern: where and how these groups situate WPF in their program of activities and whether there is an opportunity for these groups to unite on this common ground. She finds that women, whatever their other investments and political commitments, were united in the quest for a better and stronger government-led programs to educate businesses and employers around “best [workplace] practices and workplace flexibility” (178). But women expressed divergent views on how active governments should be in requiring such changes. The majority of the women Crowley interviewed did not feel they were part of a broad-based mothers' movement, dedicated to an “intellectual project to solve the common problems of motherhood” (154).

Crowley's ambition in examining how workplace flexibility is adopted or championed by these groups is in fact an activist project. She concludes with a strong argument for the possibility of coalition between these groups, arguing there are “signs of hope for unity” (177) around workplace flexibility. She calls for government leadership on the issue, an increased array of grants and awards for businesses that are providing flexible and inclusive workplaces, and for mothers to unite to achieve these goals for all. Crowley's questions about the possible value and impact of a mothers' movement for workplace flexibility links her work to the campaigns by mothers that Danielle Poe investigates in her book. Poe is interested in what motivates women as mothers to become activists and to seek social change and transformation.

MOTHER ACTIVISTS

In Maternal Activism: Mothers Confronting Inequality, Danielle Poe's focus is on the individual stories of four women who took exceptional actions as mothers for political and ethical goals. There is consistent reference here to the foundational work of Sara Ruddick in Maternal Thinking (Reference Ruddick1989) as a useful paradigm for understanding what drives some women to use their motherhood as the basis for social and political activism. Ruddick sees motherhood as pivotal in women's commitments to the “common good,” as they see a connection between their familial maternal labors and their ability to create good on a broader scale (29). Each of the women Poe selects in her case study takes up Ruddick's challenge that maternal care must extend to the community, that the security and safety of one's own children is linked to the security and safety of other children. These women “don't see the good of one group of children as opposed to that of other children” (109), meaning that the well-being of their own children will be served by seeking good for all children.

This book is distinct in this set of explorations of maternal politics, as Poe seeks to investigate activism in the context of the women's mothering and their own maternal relationships. She documents the stories of Mollie Rush and Michele Naar-Obed, who both served time in jail for direct and damaging action on nuclear warheads; of Cindy Sheehan, who became a prominent and outspoken critic of the U.S. involvement in wars in the Middle East after the death of her son Casey in the second Iraq War; and of Diane Wilson, a shrimp boat captain who became an environmental activist after experiencing the impacts of pollution in Calhoun Bay off the coast of Texas.

The book is arranged in a series of chapters that offer a detailed and extensive case study of each of the women and the activist work that they did. Poe's approach is explicitly biographical. She argues both for the value of biography and its critical insights into transformative praxis and asserts that the stories of individuals are important as they illuminate and flesh out the often-assumed links between motherhood and peace but eschew essentialist paradigms to explain these assumptions. She contends, “Each [woman has] a particular way of assessing and responding to the injustice that they discover” (2). In each of these case studies, the actions and words of the maternal activist are intertwined with feminist philosophies and extant theories of maternal practices. These philosophical interventions are used to explicate and reveal how the relational praxis of motherhood is instrumental in defining women's activism, even where that activism leads to loss or disadvantage for their own children. This choice was particularly poignant in the cases of Rush and Naar-Obed, who were imprisoned for actions and therefore had to weigh their commitments to social good against the direct impacts on the well-being of their own children. Their political actions were assessed against normative social and legal paradigms, but also through the hard and judgmental gaze that is applied to all women who mother.

MOTHER/CITIZEN/ACTIVIST

Read together or separately, these books document the rich, varied, and expansive landscape of American motherhood and its contemporary politics—understood in both the broad and the specific sense. As Greenlee's observation above shows, they acknowledge the effort, labor, and on-going change inherent in women's mothering roles and activities. The authors offer a valuable showcase of the interdisciplinary and mixed-method approaches that have been pioneered in feminist academic work: political and philosophical theory and discourse analysis are intermingled with statistical and qualitative analysis of empirical research studies. One of the questions that each author seems impelled to answer is, “why motherhood?” as a focus for critical attention in terms of politics. For each, the mobilization of “motherhood” as a trope in politics is evident but sometimes troubling. The authors illuminate the ways in which different women and groups of women seek to participate, challenge, and transform their social and political landscapes.

Each author is acutely aware of the complexities and tensions inherent in the discursive social and political spaces of motherhood. Mothering practices are produced (and evaluated) through a range of normative and seemingly implacable set of assumptions about what is good, right, and proper. As Crowley saliently observes, personal and public decision-making frames operate contemporaneously for women as they mother (3). Therefore, decisions about political involvement, social action, and employment options as well as child care and rearing involve these aspects: they are assessed through the lens of motherhood (Greenlee, 172). The authors share a commitment to understanding how the normative assumptions about mothering, which have such deep and particular social and personal resonance, influence political processes and women's (and children's) opportunities. Each of the authors recognizes that the political location of mothering and motherhood is deeply entwined with educational developments, peace, and environmental activism. This platform has led to social and political access for women in terms of influencing policy and government. Greenlee's identification of “motherhood as a lens” (172) that allows for the development of new social and political commitments or a recalibration and extension of older ones, offers a valuable trope for linking the work of each of these scholars. But there is also a shared recognition that motherhood can limit women's access, too, and certainly that it can exclude or even demonize some mothers, as Stavrianos's vivid account of how African American single mothers have been consistently stigmatized as “welfare queens” since the latter half of the 20th century.

There are many striking images of political mothers in these books: Sarah Palin and her grizzly mamas (Greenlee); Michelle Obama and her account of the challenges of employed motherhood (Crowley); and Nancy Pelosi as the first woman to assume the speaker's chair in the U.S. Congress, surrounded by children and grandchildren (Stavrianos). But alongside these evocative portrayals of mothers in contemporary culture, and just as significant, are accounts of how women every day make sense of their mothering roles and activities, even though their work is often unseen and unacknowledged. These books offer critical and valuable insights into the politics of motherhood and how women understand and enact the obligations and commitments linked to both their motherhood and their citizenship.