The Contradictions of Motherhood

Modern motherhood in Australia and New Zealand is marked by contradiction. Recent decades have seen policy changes aimed at facilitating gender equality - such as enhanced paid parental leave and more generous childcare subsidies - alongside cultural shifts in the gendered division of domestic labour and women's workforce participation. Yet, despite these changes, motherhood continues to be a contested and divisive subject, as well as a site of inequality.

Many households and communities strive for egalitarian relationships and challenge the conflation of women with motherhood; however, essentialist notions of the maternal persist. Norms of "good motherhood" continue to limit the identities available to mothers, and structural responses to gender inequities often fall short. Tensions are therefore present in cultural representations of women and families, workplace and sector policies and practices, government initiatives, and lived experiences of motherhood.

Intersectional inequalities compound these challenges. Indigenous, sole, and migrant mothers face additional barriers that workplace and welfare policies have failed to adequately address. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified these pressures, while simultaneously presenting opportunities to restructure work and care.

With contributions from scholars across a range of disciplines - including history, sociology, criminology, human geography, media and communication, and business and management - Motherhood, Labour and Care in the 21st Century: Contradictions in focus interrogates these substantive themes in diverse communities across Australia and New Zealand. It offers a critical reflection on motherhood, labour and care, uncovering taken-for-granted assumptions about gender and family life, and redressing stubborn inequities.

Motherhood, Labour and Care in the 21st Century hopes to encourage individuals and households to think differently about motherhood, and to inform government perspectives and social policy on gender ideologies, families, workplaces, and the broader care deficit.