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Constructed Identity, Subjective Identity and Inter-Subjective Transformation: an Exploration by Way of Motherhood and Canadian Maternity Benefits

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Constructed Identity, Subjective Identity and Inter-Subjective Transformation: an Exploration by Way of Motherhood and Canadian Maternity Benefits Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) 2009 Constructed Identity, Subjective Identity and Inter-Subjective Transformation: An Exploration By Way of Motherhood and Canadian Maternity Benefits Patricia Van Katwyk Wilfrid Laurier University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd Part of the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Van Katwyk, Patricia, "Constructed Identity, Subjective Identity and Inter-Subjective Transformation: An Exploration By Way of Motherhood and Canadian Maternity Benefits" (2009). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 1081. https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/1081 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. UMI Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre r&ference ISBN: 978-0-494-54261-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-54261-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'internet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada CONSTRUCTED IDENTITY, SUBJECTIVE IDENTITY AND INTER-SUBJECTIVE TRANSFORMATION: AN EXPLORATION BY WAY OF MOTHERHOOD AND CANADIAN MATERNITY BENEFITS By Patricia Van Katwyk MSW, Wilfrid Laurier University, 1996 DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of Social Work In partial fulfillment of the requirements for PhD Wilfrid Laurier University 2009 ©Patricia Van Katwyk, 2009 Abstract When identity is conceptualized as a fluid and ongoing process that is mutually influenced by subjective and constructed experience, an interplay can occur that engenders and signifies collective life. With an acknowledgement of motherhood as a politically and emotionally charged identity experience, and asserting the capacity of social policy to sustain a constructed ideology, this paper explores a conversation that occurred between 28 mothers in Canada. The site of this conversation was an on-line journal (blog). Using a participatory narrative action method of research, the mothers participated as co-researchers, conducting a narrative analysis of one another's narratives and a policy and discourse analysis on the current Canadian maternity benefits policy. This study explores the ways in which the mothers encountered and engaged one another, told their stories and shared in the development of critical awareness. Throughout the various stages of the study, the author conceptualizes identity as being both constructed and subjective where tension, negotiation, resistance and reform can occur. This conceptualization of identity is explored in an investigation of the ways in which a collective conversation could occur, and the changes that were the result of collective, inter-subjective experience. u Acknowledgements There are many people who have played an important role in this project. It has been a profoundly inter-subjective experience! I thank my professors who challenged me to begin to think more carefully and critically about that which "makes the world go 'round": they were the tenders of the seeds that my own experience of motherhood had planted. I thank those colleagues and classmates who were interested, challenging, idealistic and skeptical - all in good measure, all in the name of lively and thought-provoking discussions. With gratitude, I acknowledge those who committed themselves most closely to this project. To all the women that participated in the mothersvoice conversation: I am humbled by the generosity, intelligence, and innovative thought that went into the project. Mothersvoice was an intense and time- consuming discussion, and I feel so grateful for the ways in which all the women invested themselves. Thank you, Dr. Ginette La Freniere, who, as my thesis advisor, provided support as an intellectual; an academic, a critic - with a great ability for the community building that occurred throughout this entire process. Thank you for your support and respect. I wish to thank Dr. Anne Westhues, who inspired me to think about social policy with meticulous, analytical care, and encouraged the efforts I was making to be both micro- and macro-minded. I wish to thank Dr. Allison Weir, who brought, with grace, many years of thought and philosophical reflections about identity to this project. I wish to thank Dr. Margaret Toye, who, as a feminist and a cultural critic, gave creative and in strenuous attention to my theoretical considerations. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to work with Amber Robertson, who helped me to understand cyberfeminism more fully, and provided valuable perspectives as I worked to process the fascinating conversations that occurred in mothersvoice. I would like to extend heart-felt gratitude to my dear family and friends, for their support, unwavering interest and pride in my efforts: I thank my life- partner and my young children, who made space at the dinner table and every other dimension of our family life for ideas, paperwork and timelines; my parents, who delighted in providing grand-parenting assistance, and more; and my community for being....my community. IV Table of Contents Glossary x I. Introduction 2 II. Literature Review 18 A. An Authentic Self...and Beyond 18 1. How is modernism reflected in conceptualizations of the self that begin with Freud? 2. How is the shift to postmodernism reflected in the evolution of theories about identity? 3. How can identity be considered so that there is a place for agency? 4. Why is a critical awareness important for agency? 5. How do theories of the self reflect critical awareness? B. Social Policy as a Constructer of Identity 39 1. Why examine social policy in a consideration of identity and agency? 2. What is the impact of social policy? 3. Social policy and the subject: How does social policy socialize? 4. Is there an impact of the subjective on social policy? C. Motherhood as a Constructed Identity 48 1. Is motherhood a role or an identity? 2. What is the ideology of motherhood? 3. How is the mother ideal connected to the worker ideal? D. Canadian Maternity Benefits Policy 53 1. Exploring a mother's policy—how is it informative to explore a policy for mothers? 2. What is the current maternity benefits policy? 3. How can history be used to find an ideology? 4. What was the defined problem? 5. Who is dangerous and who is virtuous? 6. What ideology is revealed by such a problem definition? v 6a. Dependency: How is an ideology about women s dependency supported? 6b. Imbalanced privilege: How is a neo-liberal ideology about individualism and justified inequity sustained? 6c. Mother's place: How is an ideology of the public/private dichotomy sustained? 7. What does the policy do to the "dangerous" mothers? 8. Is this all there is to the identity of mother? E. The Constructed/Subjective Interplay: Can This Facilitate Agency? 81 1. Why is it important to locate the subjective? 2. What is the agency that can occur when the subjective and the constructed identity are mutually significant in a conception of self? 3. How is this construct/subjective/agency relevant to social policy in general and maternity benefits specifically? Research Methods and Design 106 A. Purpose of the Research 106 B. Research Questions 106 C. Design 106 1. Sampling and Recruitment 2. Stages of the Design 3. The Blog as a Research Platform a. Ethical concerns b. The Possibilities of Innovative Research i. Geographic scope ii. Cyberspace iii. Cyberfeminism D. Research Methods as Praxis 125 1. Participatory Action Research 2. Narrative Research E. Beginning with Myself 149 F. Summary 156 Analysis of the introductions: the creation and immersion of of self-maps 159 A. Self-maps in Mothersvoice 159 B. Elements of the'self-maps' 164 VI 1. Geographic Location 2. Personal Characteristics 3. History and Future C. Immersed In an Inter-Subjectivity 169 1. Salutations 2. Humour 3. Anticipatory Conclusions D. Summary Analysis of the Narratives 188 A. Narrative Analysis 189 B. Analyzing Mothersvoice Participants' Narratives 1.91 1. Crisis 2. Crisis as an Unanticipated Event 3. Transformations: Future, Identity, and Inter-subjectivities C. The Narrative as an Inter-Subjectivity 207 Maternity Benefits Policy as a Constructed Self 214 A. Policy Analysis 215 1. Maternity Benefits as an Employment Insurance Program a.
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