Motherhood Studies

Full-time FindingJoy.net blogger, speaker, marketer, podcaster, and single mom of seven, Rachel Marie Martin presents a rallying cry to anyone who believes the lie that she is "just a mom." Over the years, you willingly pour everything you have into your family, but in the process, you lose the...

Best-selling author Naomi Wolf demythologizes motherhood and reveals the dangers of common assumptions about childbirth. With uncompromising honesty, she describes how hormones eroded her sense of independence, ultrasounds tested her commitment to abortion rights, and the keepers of the OB/GYN establishment lacked compassion. Wolf's courageous willingness to talk about the unexpected difficulties of childbirth will help every woman become a more knowledgeable planner of her pregnancy and better prepare her for the challenges of balancing a career, freedom, and a growing family.

On May 23, 2009, Amanda Stott-Smith drove to the middle of the Sellwood Bridge in Portland, Oregon, and dropped her two children into the Willamette River. Forty minutes later, rescuers found the body of four-year-old Eldon. Miraculously, his seven-year-old sister, Trinity, was saved. As the public cried out for blood, Amanda was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to thirty-five years in prison.

Any mom who has tried to create a godly home for her family knows it doesn't happen automatically. Through books, blogs, and Instagram accounts, culture asserts that good moms must follow certain standards and abide by certain rules if she want what's best for her children. She must do everything she can — and she must do it all just right.

Bullshitsätze wie "Viele Frauen wollen doch gar keine Karriere machen." oder "Vermisst du dein Kind nicht, wenn du alleine wegfährst?" bekommen wir wohlwollend von unseren Freundinnen zu hören oder werden uns von engsten Familienmitgliedern heimtückisch ins Ohr geflüstert, bis wir ihnen glauben – und das Patriarchat sich freudestrahlend die Hände reibt. Dieses Hörbuch ist die ultimative Anleitung zum Parieren solcher Sätze.

Discover the complete social history of the housewife archetype, from colonial America to the 20th century, and re-examine common myths about the “modern woman.” The notion of “housewife” evokes strong reactions. For some, it’s nostalgia for a bygone era, simpler and better times when...

Create healthy habits over 42 days for your head, heart, and body Have you ever experienced the disconnect between what you believe in your head, feel in your heart, and experience in your body? Have you ever felt as if some part of your physical or mental health is "broken" and you just can't...

What does it mean to create, not in "a room of one's own," but in a domestic space? Do children and genius rule each other out? In The Baby on the Fire Escape, Julie Phillips traverses the shifting terrain where motherhood and creativity converge. With fierce empathy and vivid prose, Phillips evokes the intimate struggles of brilliant artists and writers, including Doris Lessing, Ursula K. Le Guin, Audre Lorde, and Alice Neel. A meditation on maternal identity and artistic greatness, Phillips illuminates some of the most pressing conflicts in contemporary women's lives.

In the Country of Women is a valuable social history and a personal narrative that reads like a love song to America and indomitable women. In inland Southern California, near the desert and the Mexican border, Susan Straight, a self-proclaimed book nerd, and Dwayne Sims, an African-American basketball player, started dating in high school. After college, they married and drove to Amherst, Massachusetts, where Straight met her teacher and mentor, James Baldwin, who encouraged her to write.

Celebrities are photographed nursing in public, yet breastfeeding mothers are asked to cover up in malls and on airplanes. Breastfeeding is a private act, yet everyone has an opinion about it. How did feeding our babies get so complicated? Journalist and infant health advocate Kimberly Seals Allers breaks breastfeeding out of the realm of "personal choice" and shows our broader connection to an industrialized food system that begins at birth, the fallout of feminist ideals, and the federal policies that are far from family friendly.

Best-selling author Stasi Eldredge celebrates the glorious design and beauty of a mother released to be all she was meant to be.

"Rebecca Thompson’s moving book proves that there are as many different ways of becoming a family as there are mothers—a personal, compelling reminder of why women’s reproductive health care matters, and why one size does not fit all”—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author...

Motherhood So White is the story of Nefertiti's fight to create the family she always knew she was meant to have and the story of motherhood that all American families need now. In this unflinching account of her parenting journey, Nefertiti examines the history of adoption in the African American community, faces off against stereotypes of single, Black motherhood, and confronts the reality of raising children of color in racially charged, modern-day America.

The intersection of motherhood and creative life is explored in these writings on mothering that turn the spotlight from the child to the mother herself. Here, in memoirs, testimonials, diaries, essays, and fiction, mothers describe firsthand the changes brought to their lives by pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering.

Why life is harder on American families than it's been in decades? This book takes the blame away from moms and puts it where it really belongs. Pressed for time and money, unable to find decent affordable daycare, wracked with guilt at falling short of the mythic supermom ideal-working and non-working American mothers alike have it harder today than they have in decades, and they are worse off than many of their peers around the world. Why? Because they're raising their kids in a family-unfriendly nation.

This book is a love letter to mothers everywhere. Discover a beautiful reminder of your identity, both as a woman and a mother. Are you an imperfect, trying-her-best mom? If you're stressed from overreading parenting advice, The Magic of Motherhood is the calming antidote you need. Ashlee Gadd...

What kind of mother abandons her child? During the pandemic, trapped at home with young children and struggling to find creative space to write, journalist Begoña Gómez Urzaiz became fixated on artistic women who overcame both society’s condemnation and their own maternal guilt to leave their children—at will or due to economic or other circumstances. The Abandoners is sharp, at times slyly humorous, and always deeply empathetic.

This is the story of one of Church history's most revered women, the godly mother of John and Charles Wesley. This biography recounts the story of a woman who used her strong leadership and faith to raise well educated and spiritually disciplined children. Her unwavering devotion to God and family in the face of grief, poverty, and a sometimes difficult marriage is a tremendous inspiration.

The work-family conflict that mothers experience today is a national crisis. Women struggle to balance breadwinning with the bulk of parenting, and stress is constant. Social policies don't help. Of all Western industrialized countries, the US ranks dead last for supportive work-family policies: No federal paid parental leave. The highest gender wage gap. No minimum standard for vacation and sick days. Can American women look to European policies for solutions?

Comedienne Julia Brandner will niemals schwanger werden und beschließt mit Mitte 20, sich sterilisieren zu lassen. Eine Entscheidung, die viele nicht verstehen und die gar nicht so einfach umzusetzen ist. In „I’m not kidding“ erzählt Julia mit Humor und Offenheit, welche Hindernisse sie auf dem Weg überwinden musste (Gutachten über Zurechnungsfähigkeit!) und wie sie gegen gesellschaftliche Erwartungen und für ihre Sterilisation kämpfte, bis sie sich mit 28 Jahren endlich sterilisieren lassen konnte.