A Case for Motherhood as an Intersectional Identity

A Feminist’s Labour of Love

Abstract

There are around 2.2 billion mothers (“Statistics”), and over 77 million live in the United States (US) (United States Census Bureau). Unfortunately, feminists have self-admittedly done a poor job representing the interests of mothers. Shari L. Thurer, for example, asserts that as soon as a woman becomes a mother, “her personal desires either evaporate or metamorphose so that they are identical with those of her infant” (191). In short, she “ceases to exist” (Thurer 191). Moreover, even though women’s unpaid domestic work in the US raises the gross domestic product by 25.7 per cent (McCann), economists often overlook the work of full-time mothers. This article situates mothers within feminist theory and discourse by demonstrating that mothers are not fully represented by feminists or economists and as such are marginalized by both identities. In short, motherhood is an experience that is not adequately addressed by the experiences of women or workers. An intersectional approach will help ensure mothers get the attention they deserve as a social identity in intersectional feminist scholarship.

you want to keep

the blood and the milk hidden

as if the womb and breast

never fed you

(Kaur 223)