The sociology of Motherhood

We need significant change in how we as a society and culture think and talk about mothers and motherhood.

When a woman becomes a mother, she enters in a new social role - one that comes with expectations, presumptions, stereotypes, and pressures, about who a mother should be, how she should mother her child/ren, what she is presumed to look like, and even what she should or shouldn’t feel.

There is a significant amount of research on the social construction of motherhood and maternal scholars have been working in this arena for many decades, and yet we still have so far to go in making social and cultural change that mothers and families need.

It is time to usher in a new paradigm to bring to the centre stage the conversation that so desperately needs to be had: on the complex, fraught, powerful, creative, world-expanding, challenging, and revolutionary potential of what it means to be a mother and how motherhood is constructed in our society today.

It is time to change our cultural understanding of what motherhood means.

It is time to usher in a new paradigm of mother-support.

It is time to value care-work and the importance of mother-care for the health and well-being of families and society.

It is time to take the cultural conversation on motherhood to the next level to talk about the expansion, growth and power possible within one of – if not THE – most challenging, undervalued and taken for granted roles in the world.

The Motherhood revolution.

podcast

The Good Enough Mother (TGEM) podcast facilitates conversations with experts and change-makers who are passionate about creating social, cultural, and institutional shifts to better support Mothers, and therefore families and communities.

certification

Do you work with mothers or would like to? The Motherhood Studies Practitioner Certification is a one-of-a-kind online course in maternal scholarship to learn the sociological dimensions of Motherhood.

services

Engage more deeply in Sophie’s work through her courses for mothers and professionals, The Motherhood Studies Practitioner Certification, or book Sophie to run a workshop or speak at your event.