Table Of ContentTroubling Motherhood
ii
OXFORD STUDIES IN GENDER AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Series editors: J. Ann Tickner, American University, and
Laura Sjoberg, University of Florida
Windows of Opportunity Equal Opportunity Peacekeeping
How Women Seize Peace Negotiations for Women, Peace, and Security in
Political Change Post- Conflict States
Miriam J. Anderson Sabrina Karim and Kyle Beardsley
Women as Foreign Policy Leaders Gender, Sex, and the Postnational Defense
National Security and Gender Politics in Militarism and Peacekeeping
Superpower America Annica Kronsell
Sylvia Bashevkin
The Beauty Trade: Youth, Gender,
Gendered Citizenship and Fashion Globalization
Understanding Gendered Violence in Angela B. V. McCracken
Democratic India
Rape Loot Pillage
Natasha Behl
The Political Economy of Sexual Violence
Enlisting Masculinity in Armed Conflict
The Construction of Gender in U.S. Sara Meger
Military Recruiting Advertising during the
From Global to Grassroots
All- Volunteer Force
The European Union, Transnational Advocacy,
Melissa T. Brown
and Combating Violence against Women
The Politics of Gender Justice at the Celeste Montoya
International Criminal Court
Who Is Worthy of Protection? Gender- Based
Legacies and Legitimacy
Asylum and U.S. Immigration Politics
Louise Chappell
Meghana Nayak
Cosmopolitan Sex Workers
Revisiting Gendered States
Women and Migration in a Global City
Feminist Imaginings of the State in
Christine B. N. Chin
International Relations
Intelligent Compassion Swati Parashar, J. Ann Tickner, and
Feminist Critical Methodology in the Women’s Jacqui True
International League for Peace and Freedom
Gender, UN Peacebuilding, and
Catia Cecilia Confortini
the Politics of Space
Complicit Sisters Locating Legitimacy
Gender and Women’s Issues across Laura J. Shepherd
North-S outh Divides
A Feminist Voyage through International
Sara de Jong
Relations
Gender and Private Security in Global Politics J. Ann Tickner
Maya Eichler
The Political Economy of Violence against Women
This American Moment Jacqui True
A Feminist Christian Realist Intervention
Queer International Relations
Caron E. Gentry
Sovereignty, Sexuality and the Will to Knowledge
Scandalous Economics Cynthia Weber
Gender and the Politics of Financial Crises
Bodies of Violence
Aida A. Hozić and Jacqui True
Theorizing Embodied Subjects in International
Rewriting the Victim Relations
Dramatization as Research in Thailand’s Lauren B. Wilcox
Anti- Trafficking Movement
Erin M. Kamler
Troubling
Motherhood
Maternality in Global Politics
Edited by Lucy B. Hall, Anna L. Weissman,
and
Laura J. Shepherd
1
iv
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019039705
ISBN 978– 0– 19– 093918– 2
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed by Integrated Books International, United States of America
This book is dedicated to all those who mother, in various ways,
and all those who work for their right to do so.
vi
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Author Biographies xi
Foreword xvii
1. The Global Politics of Maternality 1
Anna L. Weissman and Lucy B. Hall
SECTION I: Performances of Motherhood
2. A Mother’s Violence in Global Politics: An Interrogation of Violent
Femininity and Motherhood Narratives 17
Katerina Krulisova
3. Protestant Paramilitary Mothering: Mothers and Daughters during the
Northern Irish Troubles 36
Sandra M. McEvoy
4. Extending Acts of Motherhood: Storytelling as Resistance to
Stigma 51
Jamie J. Hagen
5. Logics of Protection and the Discursive Construction of Refugee
Fathers 67
Lucy B. Hall
SECTION II: Maternality and the State
6. Bearing Peace and War: Sex, Motherhood, and the Treaty of the
Pyrenees 87
Laura Sjoberg
7. Ideal Citizens and Family Values: The Politics of Reproductive
Fitness 103
Anna L. Weissman
viii
8. Mother Knows Best? Critical Maternal Ethics and
the Rape Clause 122
Rebecca Wilson
9. Queering Reproductive Aid 139
Corinne L. Mason
10. Troubling Conceptions of Motherhood: State Feminism and
Political Agency of Women in the Global South 156
Anwar Mhajne and Crystal Whetstone
SECTION III: Gendered Labor and Maternality
11. Feminist Politics Still Needs Motherhood 179
Amanda D. Watson
12. Privatized Bodies in Public Locations: C- Sections, Toddler Meltdowns,
and the Neoliberal Gaze 195
Penny Griffin
13. Raising Children in Strangeness: Cosmopolitan Mothering
and Domestic Helpers in Expatriate Families 214
Catherine Goetze
14. Celebrity Global Motherhood: Maternal Care and
Cosmopolitan Obligation 233
Annika Bergman Rosamond
15. Earthborn: Maternity and Natality on a Hurting Planet 252
Cara Daggett
16. Speaking from the Margins of Motherhood:
A Politics (M)otherwise 273
Sara C. Motta
Index 291
[ viii ] Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Lucy: Toni Morrison once wrote, “if there is a book that you want to read,
but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must be the one to write it.” For
me, this is that book. From the early conversations with my co- editors,
Laura and Anna, it was clear that this book was destined to be a deeply
feminist, collaborative effort, enriched and nourished by bringing together
a diversity of scholars. I have immensely enjoyed co- editing this book
with Laura and Anna and am so grateful for their enthusiasm, wisdom,
and sharp editorial eyes. Also deepest thanks and gratitude to those who
have contributed. Reading and editing the chapters have brought me many
moments of joy, empathy, and despair (directed toward the patriarchy not
at the authors), and the tears that come with them. Finally, I would also like
to thank my mother-i n- law, Margo Bonekamp, whose grandmothering of
my daughters makes much of this work possible.
Anna: I would like to acknowledge my fellow co- editors, Laura and Lucy, for
their endless work throughout this project, creatively collaborating across
the world, on three different continents. You women are my inspiration.
This volume has been an incredible joy, and it has been my utmost pleasure
to work with you both, and with our amazing contributors. It’s incredible
to think that this wonderful project initially grew from a discussion at the
International Feminist Journal of Politics conference in Ohio! This volume
would not have been possible without the immense blood, sweat, and tears
that our foremothers have put in before us, and we acknowledge this im-
measurable debt. Finally, I would like to thank my partner Chris, without
whose love, unending support, and cooking, this work would not have been
possible. You remind me that the sky is the limit, and I am forever grateful.
Laura: I would, above all, like to thank Lucy and Anna for inviting me to join
them on this collaborative journey. It has been a creative, wonderful, and
joyous experience. I am continually inspired by the fierce intelligence and
