Mothers Who Leave: Behind the Myth of Women without Their Children - Softcover

Jackson, Rosie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0044408994 ISBN 13: 9780044408994

Publisher: Rivers Oram Press/Pandora List, 1994

Synopsis

In Britain an estimated 100,000 women live without their children, in the United States at least half a million. Yet mothers who've left are still thought of as abnormal, immoral, even deviant. Drawing on her own experience and that of many other women, Rosie Jackson asks what can drive a mother to relinquish her children and examines the emotional aftermath. Exploding the myths that surround such mothers, myths that range from vampirism to hard-hearted feminism, she explores this dark side of mothering with unusual depth and sensitivity. A close look at popular stories of mothers who leave in novels and films, from "Anna Karenina" to "Kramer versus Kramer" and "Diana: Her True Story", contrasts dramatically with the reality of women's actual lives. Alongside a discussion of the most famous examples of such mothers - including Ingrid Bergman, Frieda Lawrence, Yoko Ono and Doris Lessing - Rosie Jackson unearths lesser known ones, introducing some fascinating and moving first-hand accounts. This is a new, compassionate look at a controversial and complex subject.

Arguing that the recent invention of mothering as we know it must be radically rethought if women are ever to enjoy genuine equality, Rosie Jackson reveals the shocking personal costs of our double standards and value judgements about mothering.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rivers Oram Press/Pandora List
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0044408994
• ISBN 13: 9780044408994
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 336