The Array of Motherhoods. A State of the Art from Feminist Contributions

Abstract

The article contains a state of the art of leading research that has addressed motherhood from the perspective of the second wave of feminist and gender studies, whose authors, mainly from the Western Hemisphere, used references from History, Sociology and Anthropology. It begins with a historical approach in order to contextualize motherhood as a multifaceted cultural construction. It subsequently presents research on various motherhoods, indicated by their divergence from the parameters of traditional motherhood: teenage mothers, lesbian mothers, filicidal mothers, women who do not want to be mothers and feminist mothers. The analysis of these different contributions makes it possible to identify facets of the current debates at the national and international level. It also suggests directions for the continuation and deepening of studies on the “new motherhoods”.