Unstoppable Mothers: The Survey

One of the problems in the research about mothers in our culture is that we’re only considered in relation to our mothering and our children.

Survey after survey wonders about the impact our mother has on our children and how our children are doing. The children or the way we mother is the focus of the research. We are investigated as roles and functions rather than as people who mother.

In that research, we are not the units of analysis. Our lives and experiences remain a mystery – and that has an impact on the conversations we have in our culture about parenting and about women and work.

It reinforces the motherstopping paradigm that insists that we are functions and labour, not people with our own identities and lives. Let’s counteract that in this survey. Let’s pushback. Let’s declare ourselves the unit of analysis and share our stories and experiences from all walks of life — about mothering, about our identities and our lives, and about the personal & political motherstoppers in our culture.

Let’s talk about what stops us and what doesn’t.

Let’s get comprehensive and intersectional.

Let’s gather the women and gather the data.

Are you in?