‘Putting family first’: Shifting discourses of motherhood and childhood in representations of mothers' employment and child care

SynopsisDrawing on previous feminist and poststructuralist work in the areas of motherhood, childhood, and risk, this study examines changing cultural representations of motherhood and children's needs in articles on child care and mothers' employment in Canada's top parenting magazine. A comparative thematic analysis of articles on child care and mother's employment from two distinct time periods (1984–1989 and 2007–2010) was completed. Findings suggest that although mothers' employment is now more taken-for-granted than in the 1980s, there is less discursive space for women to lay claim to good motherhood while devoting themselves to careers. This occurred as discourses of intensive, child-centered mothering, neoliberal self-responsibility, and risk converged to position children as more needy, vulnerable and dependent, and mothers' employment as more opposed to child well-being. The implications of this include decreased legitimacy for mothers' own needs and desires, and for gender equity claims regarding women's employment and child care.