Good Reads: The Maternal is Political

The Maternal is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change. Edited by Shari Macdonald Strong. Seal Press. 2008

In the 1960s and 70s second wave feminists coined the phrase "the personal is political". They were telling society and women specifically that our personal lives and our political lives cannot be seperated. What happens at home is shaped by and shapes what happens in the world. The idea has lasted and remains today, most notably in the local food movement which encourages us to view purchases as political acts.

Becoming a mother is life-changing. Not only do you see the world through the eyes of your child, your role in society shifts. It doesn't take long as a mother or talking with a mother to realize how political or personal lives are. The wonderful book of essays, The Maternal is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change includes essays from a diverse range of women including Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Kingsolver and Benizir Bhutto. Topics include pay inequality (in 2008, when the book was published, women without children earned 90 cents to a man's dollar, mothers earned 73 cents and single mothers earned 60 cents), healthcare, paid leave and professional barriers to leadership roles. The book also has more emotional stories about mothering with disability, being a step-parent, raising children outside of gender stereotypes and post-partum depression. The reoccuring theme of the book is that mothers need to work together to achieve social change. I couldn't agree more.

When I decided to have a child and later decided to stay home to raise her, I could feel the weight of my choice and my connection to society at large. I could see the lack of affordable, quality childcare and could imagine the difficulty of trying to achieve my professional goals in an 8hr plus workday system not designed for families. For me it wasn't worth it, but boy do I have unending respect for those mothers trying to navigate that world. My choosing not to work for pay doesn't mean I get to ignore my responsiblities to other families and mothers. Regardless of our differing choices and opinions, all mothers want the best for their chlidren. So let's come together through dialogue and books like this to create the world we want for our children.