This collection defines the field of maternal studies in Australia for the first time. Leading motherhood researchers explore how mothering has evolved across Australian history as well as the joys and challenges of being a mother today. The contributors cover pregnancy, birth, relationships, childcare, domestic violence, time use, work, welfare, policy and psychology, from a diverse range of maternal perspectives. Utilising a matricentric feminist framework,
Australian Mothering foregrounds the experiences, emotions and perspectives of mothers to better understand how Australian motherhood has developed historically and contemporaneously. Drawing upon their combined sociological and historical expertise, Bueskens and Pascoe Leahy have carefully curated a collection that presents compelling research on past and present perspectives on maternity in Australia, which will be relevant to researchers, advocates and policy makersinterested in the changing role of mothers in Australian society.
Petra Bueskens is an Honorary Fellow in Sociology at the University of Melbourne, Australia, a psychotherapist in private practice, and a freelance columnist at New Matilda.
Carla Pascoe Leahy is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia and an Honorary Associate at Museums Victoria.
"This volume offers a kaleidoscope of case studies and debates that speak to the heart of mothering in Australia's past and present. Taken together, the essays in Australian Mothering simultaneously describe a rich field of research dating to the 1960s and illustrate how much remains to be done. ? Australian Mothering's essays are beautifully - often creatively - expressed. The volume is testament to the quality of both Maternal Studies scholarship and its editors' curation." (Charlotte Greenhalgh, Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 53, June, 2022)
