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  • Motherhood

  • Feminism’s unfinished business
  • By: Eliane Glaser
  • Narrated by: Elaine Glaser
  • Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (23 ratings)
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Motherhood

By: Eliane Glaser
Narrated by: Elaine Glaser
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Summary

Why, after decades of social progress, is motherhood still so much harder than it needs to be?

Before they become mothers, women are repeatedly reminded that their biological clock is ticking. Once pregnant, a woman’s body becomes public property: she is patronised, panicked and forbidden from exercising her autonomy. In labour, women’s wishes are overridden, resulting in potentially life-changing injuries and trauma.

When the baby comes home, women begin a life of pay cuts, lost job opportunities, heavier housework, unequal emotional loads and judgement from all sides. State support and family networks have fallen away, and mothers are censured for every ‘choice’ they make—if they are given real choices at all.

In this searing and vital book, Eliane Glaser asks why mothers are idealised, yet treated so poorly; why campaigns for mothers have become so unfashionable; and what we need to do to shift the needle and improve the business of child-rearing for everyone.

©2021 Eliane Glaser (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"These are big ideas, laid out with precision, grace and urgency. I couldn’t put it down." (Zoe Williams)

"Crystal clear, elegantly written and inspiring." (Darian Leader)

"Brilliant." (Jenni Murray)

What listeners say about Motherhood

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  • Jo
  • 10-07-21

What you never expect when you're expecting

The only (audio) book you really need when becoming a parent. Mind-changing, freeing, compassionate, wonderful!

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Enlightenment

I have never non stop listened to a book until today. This answered some of the deep questions I have been struggling to even articulate. Such as why did my 'natural' birth mean so much suffering that I wouldn't recommend to anyone I care about. Thankyou for bringing some big ideas into another long day on maternity leave. Helped me to dich guilt around impending return to work and shared parental leave. Now I can enjoy playing with my 5mouth old more now I'm less worried about screwing it up, or that I find peekaboo bored.

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Food for thought

An excellently researched book that observes motherhood as an institution, pulling apart the ideas and advice that comprise the ideal of modern motherhood to reveal them as just that - a set of views that often mothers who ‘fall short’ use to berate themselves. It was intelligent, wry, sensitive and at times amusing. Thank you for this work I’ll recommend to others.

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