Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Motherhood Australia'

This thesis challenges our ideas of what motherhood and ‘career’ means. Investigating contemporary motherhood practice, it reveals how for many educated Australian mothers, regardless of paid work engagement, motherhood is a skilled and meaningful ‘job’ and a ‘career’ in itself. The study contributes the notion of motherhood as a protean career to career theory by demonstrating how educated mothers experience motherhood over six stages – Starting Strong, Shifting Ground, Digging Deep, Aiming High, Learning Lots and Taking Stock. Motherhood as a protean career can fundamentally reshape how organisations, society and mothers themselves perceive and value the work and experience of motherhood.

Australia has a lower teenage fertility rate than other industrialised English-speaking countries. However, with over 11,000 births and 12,000 abortions to teenagers each year, the resolution of teenage pregnancy is an issue faced by many young Australian women. ¶ This research seeks to explore the factors that discriminate between those who terminate and those who continue a teenage pregnancy. To achieve this aim a survey was conducted on young ever-pregnant women throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. The survey sought information on young women’s characteristics on three different levels: individual; institutional; and societal or cultural. ¶ The findings suggest that, at each of the three levels proposed, there are factors that discriminate between young women who choose abortion and those who choose motherhood. At the individual level, attitudes to abortion and career aspirations were found to affect pregnancy resolution. At the institutional level factors relating to education, family, relationships and religion were found to discriminate between the two groups. Finally, at the cultural level, ethnicity and area of residence were found to be associated with pregnancy resolution, in addition to modifying the effect of characteristics at other levels.

A qualitative study was conducted to explore the expectations, anxieties and emotional impact of eight women having their first child after the age of 37 years. The design used semi-structured interviews to collect data in two phases. The first were conducled when participants were in their third trimester of pregnancy (26+ wecks). The second phase was conducted four to six months post-birth. The rationale for the study was that despite the continuing trend for delayed motherhood (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002), research on the experience of'late' motherhood is extremely limited. Women are choosing to delay motherhood for many reasons, including the need to feel emotionally prepared, finding the right partner, or after years of career success and having achieved financial stability. However, the 'biological clock' may compel women to have a child simply because timc is running out. Rapid advanccs in fertility treatment and improved levels of obstetric care have extended the opportunities for childbearing, to the extent that women are having babies up to the time of menopause, which commonly begins in the late forties (Sowers, 2000). Risks associated with 'late' babies include hypertension (Mirowsky); anxiety (Windridge & Benyman, 1999), and foetal abnormality (Benke, Carver, & Donahue, 1995). In addition, women may feel unprepared for motherhood or may experience ambivalence about their decision after many years of career development and settled lifestyle (Heckhausen, Wrosh, & Fleeson, 200I). 'Elderly primigravidae,' as they are referred to, are deemed 'high risk' by the medical profession (Mirowsky, 2002) therefore women may be expos cd to a 'culture of anxiety' surrounding their choice to have a child at what is thc beginning of the midlife phase.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of Modern History, 2003.
Bibliography: p. 417-478.
Introduction: breeding and feeding -- The medical man: sex, science and society -- Confined: women and obstetrics 1880-1899 -- The kindest cut? The caesarean section as turning point -- Reproduction in decline -- Resisting reproduction: women, doctors and abortion -- From obstetrics to paediatrics: the rise of the child -- The breast was best: medicine and maternal breastfeeding -- The deadly bottle and the dangers of the wet nurse: the "artificial" feeding of infants -- Surveillance and the mother -- Mothers and medicine: paradigms of continuity and change.
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw profound changes in Australian attitudes towards maternity. Imbibed with discourses of pronatalism and eugenics, the production of infants became increasingly important to society and the state. Discourses proliferated on "breeding", and while it appeared maternity was exulted, the child, not the mother, was of ultimate interest. -- This thesis will examine the ways wider discourses of population impacted on childbearing, and very specifically the ways discussions of the nation impacted on medicine. Despite its apparent objectivity, medical science both absorbed and created pronatalism. Within medical ideology, where once the mother had been the point of interest, the primary focus of medical care, increasingly medical science focussed on the life of the infant, who was now all the more precious in the role of new life for the nation. -- While all childbirth and child-rearing advice was formed and mediated by such rhetoric, this thesis will examine certain key issues, including the rise of the caesarean section, the development of paediatrics and the turn to antenatal care. These turning points can be read as signifiers of attitudes towards women and the maternal body, and provide critical material for a reading of the complexities of representations of mothers in medical discourse.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
478 p

This study explores the Jived experience of a group of women, geographically isolated from their extended family, as they establish their new support networks. It is based on the assumption that the shape and structure of families are constantly changing and evolving and this change in family structure impacts on both the parents and the children. One of the significant changes families are experiencing is the increasing isolation of the nuclear family from traditional family networks. It is the purpose of this study to explore the experience of this group of women to identify how the members establish their support networks. It determines the process they used in developing these networks and discovers the essential elements which contributed to the formation of new networks. The women participating in the study have all moved to Western Australia and as a result are isolated from their extended family. They all have at least one pre school aged child, speak English and have been involved in a self-help group for families separated from their extended family. A phenomenological approach was adopted to explore how this specific group of women in this situation has established their new support networks. The aim is to explore this phenomenon from the participant's perspective. A small sample of participants was selected from the self-help group with the help of a key informant. The data were collected over an extended period using in depth interviews. Each interview was transcribed and analysed for themes and concepts. These were taken back to the participants for verification. The findings have been reported using the narrative style as this is a style that fits comfortably with women. The narratives were verified by the individual participants as a true account of their experience. The themes extracted from all the participants are also reported and verified by the individual participants. The themes answer the questions of how these women establish their networks and what influences and affects the formation of these new networks. This study has implications for both policy and practice. It identifies areas where policy needs to be reviewed in order for additional funding to be provided to current health services so that they can continue with current services and expand these. Other services need to provide alternate models in order to meet the needs of various clientele. Services need to become more responsive to the community in order to meet their current needs. Additionally, some new and alternate services could be explored in order to meet the needs of this particular group. The need for further research has been highlighted by this study in the area of NESB migrants and their establishment of new networks, mothers of older school age children and those in full time employment trying to establish networks. In general the role of women in establishing networks within families still needs further researching. This study has identified some important factors in the establishment of networks by mothers of pre-school children, who are geographically isolated from their extended family.

This study explored the experience of mature age female students with dependent children at one regional university campus in Western Australia, Edith Cowan University South West (ECUSW). These students are one of many student groups whose experience differs to that of more traditional students such as young, unmarried, and well-supported school-leaver students. Although all students enter university with experiences that make them valuable to the university institution, mature age female students with dependent children enter university with unique knowledge, experiences and attitudes making them potentially valuable contributors to their own and others’ learning (Martins & Anthony, 2007). Whilst at university, these students often face unique challenges in balancing their time and energy between their multiple roles (White, 2008). The timing of this study was important in response to the Bradley Report (Bradley, 2008) which was released in 2008, which stemmed from a review of Higher Education in Australia. This report recommended national targets of at least 40% of 25 to 34 year olds are to have a bachelor level qualification or higher by 2020 (Bradley, 2008). The Bradley report also recommended an increase in enrolments of non-traditional students, including those with a low socio-economic status (SES) and those residing in regional areas. Research focusing on these students is essential as the actual experience of these non-traditional students, mature age female students with dependent children, and their specific needs is significantly under-researched. Thus, the purpose of this study was to add to the existing and emerging body of knowledge related to the population of interest to inform, guide and improve decisions relating to future Australian mature age female university students with dependent children. The methodology guiding this study was Interpretive Description, a second-generation qualitative methodology whose ancestry lies in phenomenology, ethnography and grounded theory. The purpose of this methodology, which was developed by Thorne, Reimer-Kirkham and MacDonald-Emes (1997), is to guide the researcher in the exploration of the experiences of multiple participants in a particular social setting, such as attending university. The methodology facilitates the creation of a conceptual description capturing the themes and patterns conveyed by the participants (Thorne, 2008). Data were collected from 32 participants who were involved in this study, with 21 participating in individual interviews and 11 participating in one of three mini-focus groups. Each of these 32 participants also completed the same 20-question demographic questionnaire. These methods supported the analysis of the participants’ experience, resulting in a multi-layered conceptual description. The foundational layer of the conceptual description illustrates two complex and interrelated themes of expectations and management. The expectations theme included three aspects; students’ academic expectations, expectations of the overall university experience and their expectations of time. The management theme included five aspects; students’ management of time, family, well-being, money and other significant external factors. The interpretive analysis of these themes identified three protective coping concepts and one central concept forming the conceptual layers. The three protective coping concepts included having access to, and receiving appropriate support from others; sacrifices which were required or made by the student and others; and students’ individual perception of their own university experience. Central to these protective coping concepts was the concept of “motherhood first” that was identified by the students as their primary social role, and that this role took precedence over other social roles, and influenced all aspects of their experience. This conceptual description synthesised the experience of mature age female students with dependent children who were studying at ECUSW, aligning with similar concepts highlighted for students with dependent children in existing literature (Estes, 2011; Marandet & Wainwright, 2010; White, 2008).

There is an abundance of books available on the topic of motherhood and mothering; the majority of these books focus on the vulnerability of babies and young children and the motherwork such vulnerability demands. In particular they focus on what it is right to do in the interests of the child, and particularly his or her growth and development. Such a focus is consistent in Western culture with modern moral frameworks where understandings of goodness have been assimilated to dimensions of human action rather than dimensions of human being, selfhood, or specific forms of life. As Charles Taylor has observed, much modern moral philosophy has focused =on what it is right to do rather than the nature of the good life‘ (1989, 13). The master narratives of motherhood and the prevailing social discourses of intensive1 and sacrificial2 mothering exemplify this view as such narratives and discourses depict =what mothers are expected to do [and] how mothers are supposed to be‘ (Nelson 2001, 140). From such infant/child-focused accounts a canonical maternal identity can be discerned; arguably, it is a restricted one. The majority of these books fail to address questions related to what it means be a mother in particular situated, existing, living realities. For instance, ask a mother with young children what being a mother means to her and she may speak of the challenges she faces balancing paid employment and her role as a mother, or the impact of the demands being made on her time and energy. However, ask a mother with young adult-children3 what being a mother means to her and she may speak in similar tones, but she may also speak in differing tones. For example, a "mature" mother may speak of the "empty nest", the "crowded house" and/or "its revolving front door". She may speak of issues related to the vulnerability of the long term marriage, elder care, or grandparenting, or even disillusionment and disenchantment. The purpose of this research is to explore the identity challenges and prospects of some mothers with young adult-children aged between 18 and 30 years of age in twenty-first century Australia. In interpreting the identity challenges and prospects this particular cohort of mothers encounter in their ordinary, everyday living, a diverse and particular range of maternal experiences.my own included5.have been traced, along with the social and ethical meanings ascribed in them. With an understanding and appreciation of voice as the medium which connects one's inner and outer worlds, this research illuminates the plurality of voices and the multiple layers of meaning in each of these mother's particular living and existing realities. Specifically, this research addresses the narrowly constructed, canonical maternal identity through a critical exploration and reflection on stories, shared in a research context, of the living realities of a group of self-identified "mature", middle-class, Australian mothers with children aged between 18 and 30 years of age6. By appraising the broader familial, historical, social, cultural, institutional, and, importantly, moral contexts in which these mothers are situated, 'thick descriptions' (Geertz 1973, 27)7 of maternal identities, and the challenges and prospects these mothers are negotiating, are provided. In terms of its ethical orientation, the frameworks which support and frame this research reject, repudiate and contest (Nelson 2001) the reduction of ethical concerns to individual or intellectual problems or dilemmas to be solved through the application of a theory derived from reasoned thinking. In dismissing deductive and =theoretical-juridical‘8 approaches, the individualistic orientation entrenched in contemporary Western moral thinking, expressed in the notion of '"what ought I to do" when faced with a problem, issue or dilemma of practical urgency' (Isaacs & Massey 1994, 1), is simultaneously rejected, repudiated and contested (Nelson 2001). In countering such understandings, this research reorients us to the illumination and articulation of who it is good to be, for each of these mothers, in allegiance with those goods which guide and inspire her orientations towards living a good life—a life which embraces and enhances the flourishing of herself and her significant others. With an understanding and appreciation that 'mind is never free of precommitment[—t]here is no innocent eye, nor is there one that penetrates aboriginal reality' (Bruner 1987, 32), this thesis is written with the voices of other interlocutors9. These interlocutors include the voices of my research participants whom I refer to as "research interlocutors", my textual "friends" — those scholars whose work resonates strongly with my orientations—as well as the myriad other voices that speak to mothers, for mothers and about mothers, such as those found in popular and mainstream press and culture. Sometimes these voices resonate; other times dissonance may be heard. In situating this research within these complementary frameworks, this research invites readers to join with me in considering, appreciating and appraising the narrow construction of maternal identity. I seek for this engagement, like the engagements with my research interlocutors, to be 'a meeting of voices, an authentic dialogue that is inclusive of the voices of all concerned participants' (Isaacs 2001, 6). I hope that the voices in this thesis resonate with yours (although, at times, you may feel some dissonance) and that together we can draw closer to the accounting, re-counting and re-stor(y)ing of maternal identities; like concentric circles of witness, the dialogue, ...will thus be expanded rippling into corners where one might both imagine, and least expect. Possibilities, then, are vast; the future exciting (Smith 2007, 397). This research is also shaped and guided by maternal scholarship, a relatively new field of inquiry known as 'motherhood studies' (O'Reilly 2011, xvii) which has its origins within the broader terrain of feminist scholarship. As a work of maternal scholarship, this thesis draws upon and continues the tradition of examining motherhood as it is experienced 'in a social context, as embedded in a political institution: in feminist terms' (Rich 1995, ix). It values mothers, their experiences, their stories, their lives. As such, this research is oriented towards 'matricentric feminism', a particular form of feminist inquiry, politics and theory which is consistent with and receptive to feminist frameworks of care and equal rights (O‘Reilly 2011, 25). A number of complementary conceptual frameworks have been engaged in this research with the thesis presented in three parts: the pre-figurative, configurative and re-configurative. As my particular living experiences provided the initial motivation for this research, an account of the challenges I experienced as a mother with young adult-children are outlined as a Prelude to this thesis. Attention then turns to Part One – Pre-figuring Maternal Identities in which the contextual, conceptual and methodological foundations underpinning this research are explored and outlined. In Chapter One, the prevailing cultural narratives and social discourses supporting and shaping the construction of the canonical maternal identity are outlined. Next, in setting the scholarly context, the critiques — arising from feminist and maternal scholarship — of motherhood as a patriarchal institution, mothering as experience, and mothering as work, are explored. As this research engaged with participants who are embedded in particular middle-class, heterosexual, familial and cultural structures, an exploration of family life cycle theory and main stream media accounts are also incorporated. The terrain in which "mature" mothering within an Australian context is experienced is also outlined, including the notions of "empty nests" and "crowded houses", grandparenting, elder care and women's midlife transition. Chapter Two gives an account of the conceptual ontological, ethical, identity and narrative frameworks underpinning this research. In setting the context for rich interpretations, the characteristics of being human10 are outlined before attention turns to our embodiment and embeddedness in our shared human condition11. From this point, attention then turns to understanding the moral form of human living12. In appreciating the vulnerability inherent in our shared human condition, the ways in which we may experience trouble in our lives is noted. The framing of identity constitution13 as complex, multi-faceted, relationally negotiated and composed is then outlined, followed by an understanding of why narrative is a valuable interpretive tool for interpreting and understanding human experiences. This chapter concludes with an appreciation of the ethical significance of storytelling. The research methodology is then outlined in Chapter Three. The rationale underpinning the adoption of the narrative interviewing technique of in-depth interviewing is explored. In exploring these methodological frameworks, the recruitment and interview processes involved in gathering and interpreting the recorded transcripts of ten Australian mothers with young adult-children are outlined. The method of analysis known as the Listening Guide14 best complements the multi-layered, pluri-vocal nature of narrative accounting. The final section of Chapter Three outlines The Guide, with one mother's recorded transcript used to illustrate this method's step-by-step process. Having gathered an understanding and appreciation of the pluri-vocal, multi-layered nature of narrative and identity constitution, the tone of this thesis changes in Part Two . Configuring Maternal Identities. This section consists of Chapters Four and Five and seeks to find meaning in, and make sense of, the differences and commonalities across these particular accounts. Chapter Four explores the living realities of four Australian mothers with young adult-children: Poppy, Honey, Lily and Heather. In presenting a thick description of these mothers' situated realities, the frameworks.the familial, social, cultural, historical and institutional backgrounds.which have supported and shaped each mother's experiences are illuminated. Simultaneously revealed through these particular accounts are the plurality of goods focusing and moving each mother to the moral form of life, a life of meaning and purpose. The harms challenging some mothers' moral motivations are also revealed in this chapter. Specifically illustrated in Chapter Four are the unique and qualitative differences of particular maternal identity configurations. Chapter Five reveals the commonalities amongst all of the research interlocutors' accounts. This chapter contests the individualistic orientation of many contemporary accounts of motherhood which are aimed at defining or contesting what a "good" mother ought to do. By turning away from such individualistic orientations, the chapter does not seek to define 'the content of obligation' (Taylor 1989, 3) but rather seeks to illuminate and articulate a richer, deeper understanding and appreciation of maternal be-ing and be-coming - that is, who it is good to be, for each of these mothers - in allegiance with those goods that focus and inspire her moral motivations. Part Three - Re-Configuring Maternal Identities, which is comprised of Chapter Six, draws this thesis to a close. In this final chapter, the preconceptions, conditions and aspirations for this mother-centred account of the living realities of a small, local cohort of mothers are reiterated. The insights gathered from the rich, descriptive accounts are illuminated and articulated, and the chapter closes with some suggestions for future research. In a Postlude, I reflect on how this research has been a transformative learning experience in my own life.an experience in which I have been able to not only deeply understand and appreciate the challenges and disorientation I was experiencing but also to identify and reorient my stance in relation to the good. In a practical sense, by offering thick descriptions of the living realities of this cohort of "mature" mothers, this research challenges the canonical maternal identity and questions its relevance for, and effect on, "mature" mothers' identity constitution. By bringing to light the complex existing realities of these particular mothers, this research critiques the canonical maternal identity by illustrating that each mother's life and her identity constitutions are complex, relationally negotiated and composed and that motherhood is an enduring way of being. Through these illustrations, this research engages with and extends understandings of difference feminism. This research, however, not only rejects, repudiates and contests (Nelson 2001) the narrowly defined canonical maternal identity. By illuminating and articulating the goods which shape and inspire these "mature" mothers' motherwork, this research offers a matricentric account which is consistent with and respectful of the particular, situated realities—the broader familial, social, institutional, but most importantly, moral values and frameworks—in which each mother‘s life is embedded and her motherwork oriented. By understanding and appreciating the complex and multiple webs of relationships in which each mother exists, this matricentric re-stor(y)ing of maternal experiences not only understands and appreciates the unique nature of each mother‘s existing realities, it is oriented to the continuing enhancing of the shared pursuit of the good which underpins particular maternal practices and particular maternal ways of being.

Feminist and social historians have long been interested in that particularly female ability to become pregnant and bear children. A significant body of historiography has challenged the notion that pregnancy and childbirth considered to be the acceptable and 'appropriate' roles for women for most of the twentieth century in Australia - have always been welcomed, rewarding and always fulfilling events in women's lives. Several historians have also begun the process of enlarging our knowledge of the changing cultural attitudes towards bereavement in Australia and the eschewing of the public expression of sorrow following the two World Wars; a significant contribution to scholarship which underscores the changing attitudes towards perinatal loss. It is estimated that one in four women lose a pregnancy to miscarriage, and two in one hundred late pregnancies result in stillbirth in contemporary Australia. Miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death are today considered by psychologists and social workers, amongst others, as potentially significant events in many women's lives, yet have received little or passing attention in historical scholarship concerned with pregnancy and motherhood. As such, this study focuses on pregnancy loss: the meaning it has been given by various groups at different times in Australia's past, and how some Australian women have made sense of their own experience of miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death within particular social and historical contexts. Pregnancy loss has been understood in a range of ways by different groups over the past 100 years. At the beginning of the twentieth century, when alarm was mounting over the declining birth rate, pregnancy loss was termed 'foetal wastage' by eugenicists and medical practitioners, and was seen in abstract terms as the loss of necessary future Australian citizens. By the 1970s, however, with the advent of support groups such as SANDS (Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Support) miscarriage and stillbirth were increasingly seen as the devastating loss of an individual baby, while the mother was seen as someone in need of emotional and other support. With the advent of new prenatal screening technologies in the late twentieth century, there has been a return of the idea of maternal responsibility for producing a 'successful' outcome. This project seeks to critically examines the wide range of socially constructed meanings of pregnancy loss and interrogate the arguments of those groups, such as the medical profession, religious and support groups, participating in these constructions. It will build on existing histories of motherhood, childbirth and pregnancy in Australia and, therefore, also the history of Australian women.

Using a qualitative approach, utilising a semi-structured narrative interviewing technique, I interviewed 21 participants through one-on-one interviews and focus groups to examine how participants experience parenting and playgroup. The good mother syndrome refers to the social, historical and cultural determination of how mothers are supposed to act. It defines what a good mother is supposed to be, subject to political, cultural and economic influences. Further, the good mother syndrome is inextricably linked to challenges to identity, support in the mothering role, and expectations of motherhood. Playgroups are communities of women bounded by internal and external demands, where they support each other via a vehicle that encompasses their children. Playgroups, as part of holistic family services, are important in building social capital. This study asked several questions. Firstly, it investigated the mothering experience in Western Australia in the 21st century. Secondly, this study asked whether the challenge to identity is more salient to first time mothers, and how this is affected by the good mother syndrome. Next, it asked why families attend playgroup, from a mother's perspective. Further, it asked whether mothers are faced with the good mother syndrome at playgroup, and investigated the role that playgroup plays in strengthening or challenging the good mother syndrome. I conducted 11 one-on-one interviews with mothers that attended playgroup in the Perth metropolitan area, and two focus groups, each with five participants, at two different Perth playgroups. This study found that women find the role as mothers a challenging, yet positive experience. Further, it found that challenges to identity were salient with the birth of he first child, and that these challenges were consolidated with the birth of subsequent children, only easing as the youngest child got older. The women in this study reported that they attend playgroup to develop a sense of belonging, to seek validation in the mothering experience and to claim and exercise expertise. Further, whether the good mother syndrome was challenged or strengthened by playgroup amongst these women depended on group dynamics within the playgroup session, the stage of parenting, and socioeconomic factors. Generally speaking, women can identify what is a 'good' mother and what is a 'bad' mother, but they do not understand the 'good mother syndrome' as an abstract concept. Playgroup, as a community-based Australia-wide program, needs to be recognised as an important contributor to the well-being of families with young children, and, as such, requires ongoing government support.

Although the position of mothers has changed considerably since the beginning of the twentieth century, an idealised notion of motherhood persists. The cinema provides a source of information about attitudes towards mothering in Australian society which is not diminished by the fact that mothers are often marginal to the narrative. While the study recognises that cinematic images are not unconditionally authoritative, it rests on the belief that films have some capacity to reflect and influence society. The films are placed in an historical context with regard to social change in Australian society, so that the images can be understood within the context of the time of the making and viewing of the films. The depictions of the mother are scrutinised with regard to her appearance, her attitude, her relationship with others and the expectations, whether explicit or implicit, of her role. Of particular significance is what happens to her during the film and whether she is punished or rewarded for her behaviour. The conclusions reached after analysis are used to challenge those ideas which assume that portrayals of motherhood are unchangeable and timeless. The study examines Australian feature films from 1900 to 1988. To augment its historical focus, it uses sociological, psychoanalytical and feminist theoretical writing with special relevance for motherhood and mothering practice. Looking at areas of importance to mothers, it comprises an exploration of what makes a mother good or bad; the significance of the birth of female and male children; the relationship of mothers to daughters; the mother's sexuality and the metaphor of the missing mother. It shows that images of motherhood on screen are organised according to political, social and economic requirements in the community. Further, films frequently show mothers in traditional roles which are useful for maintaining notions of patriarchal privilege in society. The analysis exposes stereotypical depictions of motherhood which are often inaccurate, unfair and oppressive to women.

[Truncated abstract] This thesis argues that the non-representation and under-representation of mothering in contemporary Australian literature reflects a much wider cultural practice of silencing the mother-as-subject position and female experiences as a whole. The thesis encourages women writers to pay more attention to the subjective experiences of mothering, so that women’s writing, in particular writing on those aspects of women’s lives that are silenced, of which motherhood is one, can begin to refigure motherhood discourses. This thesis examines mother-as-subject from three perspectives: mothering as a corporeal experience, mothering as a psychological experience, and the articulations and silences of mothering-as-subject. It engages with feminist, postmodern and fictocritical theories in its discussion of motherhood as a discourse through these perspectives. In particular, the thesis employs the theoretical works of postmodern feminists Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva in this discussion . . . A fictional narrative also runs through the critical discussion on motherhood. This narrative, Catherine’s Story, gives a personal and immediate voice to the mother-as-subject perspective. In keeping with the nature of fictocriticism, strict textual boundaries between criticism and fiction are blurred. The two modes of writing interact and in the process inform and critique each other.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 1999.
Title from title screen (viewed Apr. 16, 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of History, Faculty of Arts. Degree awarded 1999; thesis submitted 1998. Includes bibliography. Also available in print form.

"Improved survival rates for premature infants have resulted in extended hospital stays in neonatal nurseries with consequent challenges for mothers assuming a parental role. Additionally, maternal medical complications associated with surgical birth, and a need to locate themselves in unfamiliar clinical environments, exacerbate women's experiences and transition to a maternal role competes with other roles at this time. For women living in rural and regional areas, who experience premature birth, there is additional hardship due to isolation, distance and limited support services. There has been little research on women's experiences with infants in special care nurseries in regional Australia."--(leaf ii).
Master of Nursing

"Improved survival rates for premature infants have resulted in extended hospital stays in neonatal nurseries with consequent challenges for mothers assuming a parental role. Additionally, maternal medical complications associated with surgical birth, and a need to locate themselves in unfamiliar clinical environments, exacerbate women's experiences and transition to a maternal role competes with other roles at this time. For women living in rural and regional areas, who experience premature birth, there is additional hardship due to isolation, distance and limited support services. There has been little research on women's experiences with infants in special care nurseries in regional Australia."--(leaf ii).
Master of Nursing

Australia has a lower teenage fertility rate than other industrialised English-speaking countries. However, with over 11,000 births and 12,000 abortions to teenagers each year, the resolution of teenage pregnancy is an issue faced by many young Australian women. ¶ This research seeks to explore the factors that discriminate between those who terminate and those who continue a teenage pregnancy. To achieve this aim a survey was conducted on young ever-pregnant women throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. The survey sought information on young women’s characteristics on three different levels: individual; institutional; and societal or cultural. ¶ The findings suggest that, at each of the three levels proposed, there are factors that discriminate between young women who choose abortion and those who choose motherhood. At the individual level, attitudes to abortion and career aspirations were found to affect pregnancy resolution. At the institutional level factors relating to education, family, relationships and religion were found to discriminate between the two groups. Finally, at the cultural level, ethnicity and area of residence were found to be associated with pregnancy resolution, in addition to modifying the effect of characteristics at other levels.

This thesis examines the impact of gender, feminism and motherhood on the careers of four Australian composers: Margaret Sutherland (1897–1984), Ann Carr-Boyd (b. 1938), Elena Kats-Chernin (b. 1957) and Katy Abbott (b. 1971).
Aspects of the biographies of each of these women are explored, and I situate their narratives within the cultural and musical contexts of their eras, in order to achieve heightened understanding of the ideologies and external influences that have contributed to their choices and experiences. Methodologies derived from feminist biography and oral history/ethnography underpin this study. Theorists who inform this work include Marcia Citron, Daphne de Marneffe, Sherna Gluck, Carolyn Heilbrun, Anne Manne, Ann Oakley, Alessandro Portelli, Adrienne Rich and Robert Stake, along with many others.
The demands traditionally placed on women through motherhood and domesticity have led to a lack of time and creative space being available to develop their careers. Thus they have faced significant challenges in gaining public recognition as serious composers. There is a need for biographical analysis of these women’s lives, in order to consider their experiences and the encumbrances they have faced through attempting to combine their creative and mothering roles. Previous scholarship has concentrated more on their compositions than on the women who created them, and the impact of private lives on public lives has not been considered worthy of consideration.
Three broad themes are investigated. First, the ways in which each composer’s family background, upbringing and education have impacted on their decision to enter the traditionally male field of composition are explored. The positive influence from family and other mentors, and opportunities for a sound musical education, are factors particularly necessary for aspiring female composers. I argue that all four women have benefited from upbringings in families where education and artistic endeavour have been valued highly.
The second theme concerns the extent to which the feminist movement has influenced the women’s lives as composers and mothers, and the levels of frustration, and/or satisfaction or pleasure each has felt in blending motherhood with composition. I contend that all four composers have led feminist lives in the sense that they have exercised agency and a sense of entitlement in choices regarding their domestic and work lives. The three living composers have reaped the benefits of second-wave feminism, but have eschewed complete engagement with its agenda, especially its repudiation of motherhood. They can more readily be identified with the currently evolving third wave of feminism, which advocates women’s freedom to choose how to balance the equally-valued roles of motherhood and the public world of work. I assert that Sutherland was a third-wave prototype, a position that was atypical of her era.
The third and final theme comprises an investigation of the ways in which historical and enduring negative attitudes towards women as musical creators have played out in the musical careers in these composers. It is contested that Sutherland experienced greater challenges than her successors in the areas of dissemination, composition for larger forces, and critical reception, but appears to have been more comfortable in promoting her work. The exploration of their careers demonstrates that all four of these creative mothers are well-respected and recognised composers. They are ‘third-wave’ women who have considerably enriched Australia’s musical landscape.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
While new motherhood is socially perceived to be a time of great elation and joy, this life stage is also a time of great risk for mental health problems and emotional difficulties. For women, these problems can have long-term impacts including putting them at risk for ongoing mental health problems and dissatisfaction with motherhood. This in turn may reduce infant-mother bonding which can have impacts on the infant’s mental health and intelligence even into childhood. The most common form of mental health morbidity in the perinatal period is postnatal depression, affecting between 10-20% of mothers in Australia (National Health and Medical Research Council 2000). This thesis fills a gap in the current literature by examining both the proximal and distal factors related to postnatal depression in Australia by using longitudinal data collected on a national, broadly representative, sample of women. A longitudinal, multi-methods design was employed to examine the complex associations between risk factors and to also explore the lived experience of new mothers who have experienced postnatal depression. Prior history of mental health conditions were particularly evident as having a significant impact on risk of postnatal depression, as was long-term experience of stressful life events and lack of social support. In addition health and stressful life events in pregnancy and postpartum such as breastfeeding, emotional distress during labour and sleep deprivation had an impact on the occurrence of postnatal depression. The results indicated that understanding a woman’s mental health history is very important in the detection of those who are most vulnerable to postnatal depression. These findings also indicate that treatment and management of depression and anxiety earlier in life may have a positive impact on the incidence of postnatal depression. The findings of this project can direct future mental health clinical guidelines regarding postnatal depression and support the premise of early intervention for mental health problems. By preventing first incidences of mental health problems, recurrences such as those in the perinatal period should be reduced, which in turn will have a positive impact on mother-infant bonding, and on maternal health outcomes and infant outcomes.

Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library.
This thesis identifies and elaborates on the way in which notions of genetic inheritance connect with notions of ’proper’ families and hence shape policies concerning reproduction and family formation. Assumptions about the structure and shape of the ’proper’ or ’traditional’ family - as a heterosexual two-parent unit with biological children - and its claim to naturalness, are embedded in policies related to reproductive technologies and family formation. The thesis explores the discourses surrounding the following specific policies - surrogacy, IVF, adoption, abortion, child support and posthumous reproduction - to elucidate the frameworks of meaning within which we understand these issues.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2006

This thesis identifies and elaborates on the way in which notions of genetic inheritance connect with notions of ’proper’ families and hence shape policies concerning reproduction and family formation. Assumptions about the structure and shape of the ’proper’ or ’traditional’ family - as a heterosexual two-parent unit with biological children - and its claim to naturalness, are embedded in policies related to reproductive technologies and family formation. The thesis explores the discourses surrounding the following specific policies - surrogacy, IVF, adoption, abortion, child support and posthumous reproduction - to elucidate the frameworks of meaning within which we understand these issues.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2006

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the reproduction imperative has taken centre stage in Australia in response to declining and delayed childbearing and the resulting below replacement fertility levels. The personal and political costs associated with these demographic trends, including unintended childlessness and the economic repercussions of a ‘greying’ population, have situated the discussion within a social framework that questions the degree of agency involved in reproductive decision-making. This thesis examines the extent to which young women (aged 18-32) are experiencing reproductive choice in Australia in late modernity. An interpretivist and broadly feminist approach investigates if and when women would like to have children and whether these desires are being achieved. The mixed method three-component research design was qualitatively driven and comprised: seven hundred and eighty existing qualitative written comments from the 1973-78 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH); seven focus group discussions with a community sample; and fifty semi-structured telephone interviews with a sub-sample of the ALSWH. Quantitative survey data provided a detailed demographic profile for each sample. The findings draw predominantly on the experiences of educated, urban, partnered, childless women who were around the age of 30 years old, and emphasise the complexity of reproductive decision-making for this group. Issues of identity and timing frequently compromised the women’s desired childbearing plan. Motherhood was felt to be undervalued, at odds with a society that privileges individual success, and in conflict with aspirations for, and the practical accomplishment of, paid work and other life goals. These perceptions created significant uncertainty toward the role and a strong belief in the need to achieve certain criteria prior to having children. The women described attempting to align their ideal childbearing circumstances with their views about ideal childbearing age in a delicate balance between attaining “security”, “stability” and “readiness” on the one hand, and fears of age-related infertility and the need for youthful energy to mother on the other. The research highlights the normative use of reproductive technology in an effort to achieve this balancing act and manage biological “chance”, such as unplanned pregnancy and infertility. The trend toward delayed childbearing that resulted for many of these women is, therefore, usually a side-effect of their reproductive decision-making as opposed to a desired goal, with the technologies of contraception and assisted reproductive technology found to support as opposed to direct childbearing plans. In a culture of individualism and risk the women described an ambivalent relationship with the multitude of choices facing them. Many feared that motherhood could be continually delayed in an attempt to find the “right time”.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
This thesis seeks to extend existing understandings of mothering practices, behaviours and beliefs in contemporary Australia; the research provides an account of the meanings a culturally diverse group of women and men drawn from different class backgrounds ascribe to their ‘mothering’ practices. Samoan and Burundian mothers and working-class mothers living in the Brisbane suburb of Logan; privileged, White, middle-class mothers living in Ascot; and stay-at-home fathers, drawn from across the Brisbane region describe, in their own words, their lived experience of mothering. The project employed grounded theory and a broadly ethnographic approach, underpinned by a feminist epistemology. The data was gathered from 32 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with the three groups of participants over a period of three years, combined with ethnographic immersion in the research sites over extended periods. The findings show that in the Logan community, mothering and ‘othermothering’ are prevalent in Samoan, Burundian and working-class families and function as a kind of social citizenship: obligation and duty are the main underpinnings of this mothering work and women define themselves through others in this work. In contrast to the communal mothering at Logan is the much more singularised form of mothering practised by the White, privileged mothers of Ascot who practice an upper-middle class form of ‘intensive mothering’. The Ascot stay-at-home mothers show evidence of a “re-traditionalisation” of their gendered role as mother and wife within their marriages in terms of taking primary responsibility for raising children and running their households. This is contrary to the “detraditionalization of marriage” in the discourse of “individualization”, the theory of social change in late modernity in Western contexts, that proposes that individual agency rather than traditional ties and family obligations propels individuals to act. The thesis compares and contrasts patterns of work and attitudes toward work among the women in Logan and Ascot. Work is found to be an extension of, as well as complementary to, their mothering; and, thus, not an antithesis to it. The financial and cultural resources available to the professional, middle-class working mothers in Ascot and the extensive extended family support given to mothers in Logan support this integration of a work and mothering identity. Attitudes toward work and the women’s relationship to work and family responsibilities are examined with particular emphasis given to Hakim’s preference theory (2000) on women’s work and care choices. The findings from the research into stay-at-home fathers asks whether men ‘mother?’, and the findings demonstrate the ways in which men build gendered constructions of their stay-at-home father identity. Men argued that this identity is undervalued and stigmatised. It is suggested that a new conceptualisation of stay-at-home fathering is required to do justice to this life choice and parenting style. Overall, it is argued that within the diverse practices of mothering in contemporary Australia the structures of culture, class and gender continue to strongly affect the kinds of mothering women and men engage in, and the attitudes they have toward it. Integration of paid work and mothering in women’s identities and the desire for a new type of fathering identity add to our understanding of contemporary childrearing practices.

The endeavor of this thesis is to throw light on the portrayal of women by the Austrian-Jewish writer Joseph Roth. Roth’s women are regarded as highly negative and thus the author has increasingly been judged a male chauvinist and misogynist. This opinion seems particularly questionable since hardly any studies on his fictitious women have ever been conducted. The present study aims at filling that void and thereby presenting Roth’s views in a more differentiated manner. A new approach to Roth is thus called for. The analysis draws from the socio-historic background in which Roth’s work is situated. In his journalism as in his fiction, Roth strived to demonstrate and deal with the challenges of the times he lived in. His work frequently revolves around the “damaged” post-war generation in the 1920s and 30s, the feeling of being literally and metaphorically homeless. His later works are mostly set in the past, although this should not be viewed as escapism but as an attempt to come to terms with present reality. The worlds he portrays are dominated by men who are neither whole nor strong. But although women are few and it is said they are depicted only in crude stereotypes, the study shows that Roth does address their problems and plights. By observing women within established types, modern and traditional, it is revealed that Roth indeed shows depth when characterizing women, and that his interest in them is to use them as examples to illustrate fundamental aspects of the human condition. Rather than portraying them subservient to man, Roth demonstrates their common humanity. His understanding for the condition of women in his times often becomes apparent only when the narrative perspective is isolated from the protagonists. Simultaneously his work presents a valuable literary contribution for Gender Studies.
Classics & Modern European Languages
(D. Litt. et Phil.) (German)

This Master of Arts thesis is in two parts : a novel, We Too Shall Be Mothers, (WTSBM) and an exegesis which positions the novel in relation to several strands of contemporary theory and fiction. The novel is set during the French Revolution in the southern French city of Avignon and in Vienna, the capital of the Hapsburg Empire. WTSBM tells the story of a fictional nun, Marie-France, who leaves her Carmelite convent and embarks on a journey towards motherhood and fully sexualised adulthood. The exegesis contains three main strands of theorisation. First, it illustrates the profound influence of feminist psychoanalytic theory on WTSBM, but also argues that the novel reformulates and departs from specific aspects of the feminist psychoanalytic paradigm. Second, the exegesis argues that WTSBM can be classified as a 'postmodernist, revisionist, historical novel', which can be positioned alongside other postmodernist, historical literature. Third, the exegesis argues that WTSBM can be located within contemporary issues of feminist politics, particularly issues of gender, sexuality and relationship, which are also evident in Jeanette Winterson's The Passion (1987). The research material for this thesis has come from a range of sources. Primary sources include field visits to the European cities of Avignon and Vienna. Secondary sources include literary theory, novels, and newspaper reviews, as well as historical monographs and works of religious philosophy and autobiography.