- Category: Books » Parenting & Family » Parenting - Motherhood
- Format: Hardcover Learn more about the Hardcover format using Tower WIKI.
- Publisher: Yale Univ Pr
- ISBN: 0300066821
- WAPI (Tower ID): 101263170
- Release Date: August 28, 1996
- Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
- Tower.com Sales Rank: #591592 in Books (See Top 100 Books Bestsellers)
- #6808 in Parenting & Family (See Top 100 Parenting & Family Bestsellers)
- #167 in Parenting - Motherhood (See Top 100 Parenting - Motherhood Bestsellers)
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Product DescriptionRun a Quick Search on "The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood" by Sharon Hays to Browse Related Products:Browse more products related to "The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood"Browse more products related to "Sharon Hays"Review"A thoughtful analysis of the paradoxes that surround mothering. Hays is sensitive to the emotional issues involved--and equally astute in perceiving their sociopolitical context." "A creative, thoughtful, and important book that raises a big issue--the contradiction between beliefs about intensive mothering and the work ethic." "Much of 'The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood' reads as if it were inspired by Thorstein Veblen's caustic 'The Theory of the Leisure Class', which ascribes the elaborate social and housekeeping rituals of nineteenth-century middle-class housewives to capitalist-driven 'conspicuous consumption' and the demands of class position. Ultimately, notions of effective childrearing can't be separated from equally subjective notions of what constitutes a good society. Intensive mothering promotes a capitalist vision of individualism and infinite resources; in the worst-case scenario, the child gets to plunder the mother like an old-growth forest, without regard for consequences. Kibbutzniks raised collectively may lack the individuation and initiative of intensively mothered little entrepreneurs, but they are more likely to focus on the common good....Hays's intellectually incendiary 'Cultural Contradictions' could add needed nuance to feminist thought--and perhaps ignite change in mothers' overburdened lives." Publisher's noteWorking mothers today confront not only conflicting demands on their time and energy but also, conflicting ideas about how they are to behave: they must be nurturing and unselfish while engaged in child rearing but competitive and ambitious at work. As more and more women enter the workplace, it would seem reasonable for society to make mothering a simpler and more efficient task. Instead, Sharon Hays points out in this original and provocative book, an ideology of "intensive mothering" has developed that only exacerbates the tensions working mothers face. Drawing on ideas about mothering since the Middle Ages, on contemporary childrearing manuals, and on in-depth interviews with mothers from a range of social classes, Hays traces the evolution. of the ideology of intensive mothering--an ideology that holds the individual mother primarily responsible for child rearing and dictates that the process is to be child-centered, expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labor-intensive, and financially expensive. Hays argues that these ideas about appropriate mothering stem from a fundamental ambivalence about a system based solely on the competitive pursuit of individual interests. In attempting to deal with our deep uneasiness about self-interest, we have imposed unrealistic and unremunerated obligations and commitments on mothering, making it into an opposing force, a primary field on which this cultural ambivalence is played out. If You Enjoy "The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood (Hardcover)", May We Also Recommend:Customer Reviews for "The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood (Hardcover)" by Sharon Hays (Author)There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review! Parenting - Motherhood Bestsellers
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