Publisher's Synopsis
A WOMAN'S WORK is the first major narrative history of motherhood and mothering, told through the bodies, writings, and activism of women and people who mother. Structured chronologically, this book traces the extraordinary history of mothering as a physical, emotional, and social experience from antiquity to the present day, showing how the love and labour of being a mother has shaped women's lives and identities.
Focusing on the large and small ways that women across the centuries have gained autonomy over their sexual and maternal bodies - both for themselves and for others - this book celebrates women's efforts to reclaim the act of mothering from patriarchal control. In turn, it examines how women have subverted the traditional institution of motherhood and the gendered implications of mothering to reframe motherhood as a powerful, self-determined force for social and political change.
Informed by Elinor's own experience of motherhood, and of being brought up by a single mother at a time where women's choices about their family lives were just starting to meaningfully open up for the first time, this is a powerful, beautifully written and ground-breaking new history for anyone who has ever mothered.
