Modern motherhood women and family in England, c. 1945-2000 /

Davis, Angela, 1981-

Modern motherhood women and family in England, c. 1945-2000 / [electronic resource] : Angela Davis. - Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press, c2012. - vii, 242 p. - Gender in history .

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Family and community : surveying women and the family -- Educating mothers : family, school and antenatal education -- Pregnancy and childbirth : antenatal care, birth and postnatal care -- Experts and childcare 'bibles' : mothers and advice literature -- Working and caring : women's labour inside and outside the home -- Breadwinners and homemakers : ideals of men and women in the family.

This book examines women's experiences of motherhood in England in the years between 1945 and 2000. Based on a new body of 160 oral history interviews, the book offers the first comprehensive historical study of the experience of motherhood in the second half of the twentieth century. Motherhood is an area where a number of discourses and practices meet. The book therefore forms a thematic study looking at aspects of mothers' lives such as education, health care, psychology, labour market trends and state intervention. Looking through the prism of motherhood provides a way of understanding the complex social changes that have taken place in the post-war world. This book will consider how women's experiences of motherhood reveal the change in women's lives, gender relations, culture and society, family and community patterns, health and welfare, and the relationship between the family and the state, that took place in these years.


Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2015. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest affiliated libraries.

9781847794161 (electronic bk.)




Motherhood--History--England--20th century.
Mothers--Social conditions--England--20th century.


Electronic books.

HQ759 / .D285 2012

305.4