A YORK UNIVERSITY PUBLICATION MOTHERING AND WORK/ MOTHERING AS WORK Fallminter 2004 Volume6, Number 2 $15 Featuring articles by JaneMaree Maher, Debra Langan, Lorna Turnbull, Merlinda Weinberg, Alice Home, Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam, Chris Bobel, Kate Connolly, Maryanne Dever and Lise Saugeres, Corinne Rusch-Drutz, Orit Avishai, Susan Schalge, Kelly C. Walter Carney and many more ... Mothering and Work/ Mothering as Work FalVWinter 2004 Volume 6, Number 2 Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief Andrea O'Reilly Advisory Board Patricia Bell-Scott, Mary Kay Blakely, Paula Caplan, Patrice DiQuinzio, Miriam Edelson, Miriam Johnson, Carolyn Mitchell, Joanna Radbord, Sara Ruddick, Lori Saint-Martin Literary Editor Rishma Dunlop Book Review Editor Ruth Panofsb Managing Editor Cheryl Dobinson Guest Editorial Board Katherine Bischoping Deborah Davidson Debra Langan Andrea O'Reilly Production Editor Luciana Ricciutelli Proofreader Randy Chase Association for Research on Mothering Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies, 726 Atkinson, York University 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Tel: (416) 736-2100 ext. 60366 Email: [email protected]; Website: www.yorku.ca~crm TheJournal of the Association for Research on Mothering (ISSN 1488-0989) is published by The Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) The Association for Research on Mothering (ARM)is the first feminist organization devoted specifically to the topics of mothering and motherhood. ARM is an association of scholars, writers, activists, policy makers, educators, parents, and artists. ARM is housed at Atkinson College, York University, Toronto, Ontario. Our mandate is to provide a forum for the discussion and dissemination of feminist, academic, and community grassroots research, theory, and praxis on mothering and motherhood. We are committed in both membership and research to the inclusion of all mothers: First Nations, immigrant and refugee mothers, working-class mothers, lesbian mothers, mothers with disabilities,mothers ofcolour, and mothers of other marginalized communities. We welcome memberships to ARM and submissions to the Journal ofthe Associationfor Research on Mothering, our biannual publication, fiom all individuals. Membership and Subscription Information Full individual memberships are available for $75Cdn/US; institutional memberships are $90Cdn/US for 2005. A full membership includes member- ship to the association, a members directory, a biannual newsletter, participa- tion on a listserve, pre-registration for annual conferences, and a subscription to the biannual Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering, as well as regular information mailings with respect to upcoming events, lecture series, conferences, workshops, and fundraisers. Basic and student memberships are also available, as is a subscription solely to the journal. Please see the last page of this journal for detailed information and order forms. Submission Guidelines In order to submit articles, book reviews, or poetry to the Journal of the Associationfor Research on Mothering, contributors must be a member of ARM. Thejournal will only consider material which is not under consideration at any other journal or publication. Please contact us for a list of upcoming themes as well as a copy of our style sheet. Articles should be typed, double-spaced, no longer than 3750 words (or 15 pages), and accompanied by a diskette. Art or photographs may accompany your work. ARM reserves the right to edit manuscripts for length and conformity to our editorial guidelines and house style. We will not publish writing that is sexist, homophobic, racist, or in any way discriminatory. Submissions will be blind-reviewed by a guest editorial board. Articles printed in the journal do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors, the staffof the journal, or ofour funders. Contributors retain copyright. No reproduction of any part of this journal is permitted without prior written permission from ARM. the Mothering as Work Ninter 2004 i, Number 2 Contents Skills, Not Attributes: Rethinking Mothering as Work bv TaneMaree Maher 7 other hood and Management by Kelly C. Walter Carney 17 Using Mothering at Work: Embracing the Contraditions in Pedagom and Practice v. Debra Lanfan The work That ~IeverEnds: Employed Mothers of Children with Disabilities by Alice Home 37 1 Maternal Activism on the Neighbourhood Level: The Ethic of Care as Motivation to Act by Kate Connolly 48 1 How Does the Law Recognize Work? by Lorna Turnbull 58 When Good Enough Isn't: Mother Blame in The Continuum Concept by Chris Bobel 68 Young Single Mothers: The Work of Proving Fitness for Parenting by Merlinda Weinberg 79 Stage Mothers: A Qualitative Analysis of Women's Work Experiences as Mothers in Toronto Theatre by Corinne Rusch-Drutz 90 Street Sex Work and Mothering by Cbristine M. Sloss, Gay WS Harper and Karen S. Budd 102 I Forgot to Have Children! Untangling Links Between Feminism, Careers and Voluntary Childlessness by Maryanne Dever and Lise Saugeres 116 Nursing Mothers at Work: Corporate and Maternal Strategies to Support Lactation in the Workplace by Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam 127 At the Pump by Orit Avishai 139 Who Compares to Mother (Nani Kama Mama)? by Susan Schalge 150 Folio Editor's Notes by Rishma Dunlop Poem for a Runaway Mother by Priscila Uppal Book Reviews The Price $Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued reviewed by Aimee Berger Balancing Family and Work: Special Considerations in Feminist Therapy reviewed by Linda R. Ennis Dehumanizing Discourse, Anti-Drug Law, and Policy in America: 'X Crack Mother's" Nightmare reviewed by Jennifer Musial Birth: A Literary Companion reviewed by Miriam Jones Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss reviewed by Gill Rye Maternal Impressions: Pregnancy and Childbirth in Literature and Theory reviewed by Nephie Christodoulides DefendingAndy: One Mother's Fight to Save her SonJi-om Cancer and the Insurance Industry reviewed by Barbara Schwartz Embalming Mom: Essays in L fe reviewed by Jane Satterfield 4 / Volume 6, Number 2 The Political Geographies of Pregnancy reviewed by Jan E. Thomas 185 Growing UpAgain: Parenting Ourselves, Parenting Our Children reviewed by Farah M. Shroff 186 The Therapist'sNotebook for Families reviewed by Justyna Szachowicz-Sempmch 187 Psychological Trauma and the Developing Brain reviewed by Channa Verbian 189 I Writing: The Politics and Practice of Teaching First-Person Writing reviewed by Kate Connolly 190 Assignation at Vanishing Point reviewed by Monika Lee 191 Contributor Notes Front Cover Shirley Greer, "Ironies - Dress," detail, mixed media: softground etching, silkscreen text, embroidery, button, 81.2cm X 68.8cm, dress image size: 45cm X 53.5cm, 2002. Shirley Greer is aprintmaker and textile artist who pursued aformal art education in her mid-SOS, after raising her family. Shegraduatedffom Sir WiIJ;edGrenfell College, Corner Brook, NL with a BM in 2003. Her body of work titled "Ironies" was in response to the (ironic)fact that while the work of mothering is rarely valued in our society,$ne art images reflecting that work are hkhly valued. Shirley lives, andpractices her art, in Pasadena, Newfoundland. Journal oftbeAssociation for Research on Mothering 1 5 JaneMaree Maher Skills, Not Attributes Rethinking Mothering as Work The title of Elizabeth Reid Boyd's article (2002) about mothers who stay at home full time is "'Being There': Mothers Who Stay at Home, Gender and Time." Boyd notes that this description surfaces repeatedly in howwomen, and others, describe what it is that constitutes motherhood. This description with its embedded sense of presence, rather than any particular form of activity, epitomises what Patrice Di Quinzio (1999) has argued is the key defining account of mothering in public discourse and in many theorised accounts, where motherhood is an all-encompassing identity, or a "state of being" (xv). Di Quinzio is critical ofthis formulation (xii),as is Anita Ilta Garey (1999)who suggests that this formulation institutes a problematic and artificial distinction between being and doing (11-12). This notion of being, rather than doing, predominates in thinking about and understanding mothering. In calling for mothers to "be there," we institute an impossible requirement for omnipresence and the potential for the full satisfaction of the child's needs. Reid Boyd (2002) argues for "the possibility of change" byreworking the meaning ofbeing there" (468), but in this article, I examine whether a new formulation of mothering as a trade might counter some of these essentidized formulations of maternal identity and move the debate fonvard. If motherhood is a state of being, then the labour women do, and the skills they employ to mother are rendered invisible. By contrast, if we describe mothering as a trade, we foreground the skills and the labour of women. We assign substantial importance to the materidity of the exchanges between women and their children. I focus particularly on how women combine mothering with paid work as a useful site to examine how women understand and respond to images of motherhood as being and doing. I consider how women in paid work deal with the tension between mother as an all-encompassing identity and notions of motherhood Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering / 7 JaneMaree Maher and their own experience ofworking at motherhood in conjunction with paid employment. I examine some indicative pieces of research that suggest that women may understand mothering as the