Download or read book The Pursuit of Motherhood written by Jessica Hepburn and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2014-02-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you've ever felt a crumpling in your chest when another friend tells you that they're pregnant... If you've ever wondered why everyone else seems to find it so easy... If you've ever experienced the pursuit of motherhood... This book is for you.
Download or read book The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood written by Sharon Hays and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Working mothers today confront not only conflicting demands on their time and energy but also conflicting ideas about how they are to behave: they must be nurturing and unselfish while engaged in child rearing but competitive and ambitious at work. As more and more women enter the workplace, it would seem reasonable for society to make mothering a simpler and more efficient task. Instead, Sharon Hays points out in this original and provocative book, an ideology of "intensive mothering" has developed that only exacerbates the tensions working mothers face. Drawing on ideas about mothering since the Middle Ages, on contemporary childrearing manuals, and on in-depth interviews with mothers from a range of social classes, Hays traces the evolution of the ideology of intensive mothering--an ideology that holds the individual mother primarily responsible for child rearing and dictates that the process is to be child-centered, expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labor-intensive, and financially expensive. Hays argues that these ideas about appropriate mothering stem from a fundamental ambivalence about a system based solely on the competitive pursuit of individual interests. In attempting to deal with our deep uneasiness about self-interest, we have imposed unrealistic and unremunerated obligations and commitments on mothering, making it into an opposing force, a primary field on which this cultural ambivalence is played out.
Download or read book 21 Miles written by Jessica Hepburn and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2018-05-03 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'This book will help so many people' Positive Fertility An Outdoor Swimming Society Book of the Year 2018 After a decade of trying and failing to become a mother, Jessica Hepburn knew it was time to do something different. So she decided to swim twenty-one miles across the English Channel – no easy feat, especially for someone who couldn't swim very well. As the punishing training schedule commenced, Jessica learned you need to put on weight to stave off the cold. This gave her the idea to meet and eat with a collection of inspiring women, and ask them: does motherhood make you happy? From baronesses and professors to award-winners and record-breakers, each of the women had compelling truths to tell about fulfilment and the meaning of motherhood.
Download or read book Mothering by Degrees written by Jillian M. Duquaine-Watson and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-31 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Mothering by Degrees, I show how single mothers who pursue college degrees in early 21st century America must navigate a difficult course as they attempt to reconcile their identities as single mothers, college students, and, in many cases, employees. As they combine these multiple and often competing roles and responsibilities, they must also negotiate a balance between cultural ideals of motherhood and their own definitions of what it means to be a "good" mother, particularly as those ideals and definitions are shaped within context of post-welfare reform America and the post-secondary institutions they attend. By comparing the experiences of nearly 100 single mother college students attending three postsecondary education institutions in the United States, I illustrate how these women navigate the various obstacles they encounter, especially obstacles related to financial concerns, child care, time constraints, and the "chilly" climate of higher education. In addition, I demonstrate that the women regard postsecondary education not only as a means of escaping poverty but also as an extension of their mothering work, something they do to help ensure the long-term health and well-being of their children. Thus, this project provides a situated, comparative account of the experiences of single mothers who are college students in order to foster a better understanding of the complex ideologies and social structures that influence the life choices and education experiences of members of this important but understudied student population. Finally, the project discusses policies and programs that can help provide better support to single mother and may diminish the challenges they face as they endeavor to complete their education"--
Download or read book The Pursuit of Porsha written by Porsha Williams and published by Worthy Books. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Porsha Williams, entrepreneur and one of today’s most recognizable media personalities, opens up about family, faith, fame, and becoming an agent for change. Porsha Williams is a remarkable voice in the television and podcast communities. In The Pursuit of Porsha, she takes readers on a deeply personal journey as she searches for happiness and self-acceptance, giving fans a first-hand look into the defining moments of her life that have not been captured on-screen or in the press. Charged with candor, vulnerability, and the sharp wit Porsha is known and loved for, The Pursuit of Porsha brings readers back to the beginning and along her path of self-reflection and discovery. She details her upbringing as the granddaughter of civil rights activist Hosea Williams and her painful recollections of childhood bullying and gives readers a look at her search for love and her journey into the spotlight. Porsha shares every moment that has tried–and restored –her faith, over and over again. Through it all, Porsha proves that she is more than a soundbite, headline, or rumor. She is an empowering role model to black women and an icon for women everywhere. In The Pursuit of Porsha, readers will see Porsha as they have never seen her before.
Download or read book The Mother of All Questions written by Rebecca Solnit and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2017-02-12 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of feminist essays steeped in “Solnit’s unapologetically observant and truth-speaking voice on toxic, violent masculinity” (The Los Angeles Review). In a timely and incisive follow-up to her national bestseller Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit offers sharp commentary on women who refuse to be silenced, misogynistic violence, the fragile masculinity of the literary canon, the gender binary, the recent history of rape jokes, and much more. In characteristic style, “Solnit draw[s] anecdotes of female indignity or male aggression from history, social media, literature, popular culture, and the news . . . The main essay in the book is about the various ways that women are silenced, and Solnit focuses upon the power of storytelling—the way that who gets to speak, and about what, shapes how a society understands itself and what it expects from its members. The Mother of All Questions poses the thesis that telling women’s stories to the world will change the way that the world treats women, and it sets out to tell as many of those stories as possible” (The New Yorker). “There’s a new feminist revolution—open to people of all genders—brewing right now and Rebecca Solnit is one of its most powerful, not to mention beguiling, voices.”—Barbara Ehrenreich, New York Times–bestselling author of Natural Causes “Short, incisive essays that pack a powerful punch.” —Publishers Weekly “A keen and timely commentary on gender and feminism. Solnit’s voice is calm, clear, and unapologetic; each essay balances a warm wit with confident, thoughtful analysis, resulting in a collection that is as enjoyable and accessible as it is incisive.” —Booklist
Download or read book Regretting Motherhood written by Orna Donath and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2017-07-11 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative and deeply important study of women’s lives, women’s choices—and an ‘unspoken taboo’—that questions the societal pressures forcing women into motherhood Women who opt not to be mothers are frequently warned that they will regret their decision later in life, yet we rarely talk about the possibility that the opposite might also be true—that women who have children might regret it. Drawing on years of research interviewing women from a variety of socioeconomic, educational, and professional backgrounds, sociologist Orna Donath treats regret as a feminist issue: as regret marks the road not taken, we need to consider whether alternative paths for women currently are blocked off. She asks that we pay attention to what is forbidden by rules governing motherhood, time, and emotion, including the cultural assumption that motherhood is a “natural” role for women—for the sake of all women, not just those who regret becoming mothers. If we are disturbed by the idea that a woman might regret becoming a mother, Donath says, our response should not be to silence and shame these women; rather, we need to ask honest and difficult questions about how society pushes women into motherhood and why those who reconsider it are still seen as a danger to the status quo. Groundbreaking, thoughtful, and provocative, this is an especially needed book in our current political climate, as women's reproductive rights continue to be at the forefront of national debates.
Download or read book Cracked Open written by Miriam Zoll and published by Interlink Publishing. This book was released on 2013-05-17 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A WOMAN’S BATTLE WITH THE BILLION-DOLLAR BABY BUSINESS Cracked Open is Miriam Zoll's eye-opening account of growing into womanhood with the simultaneous opportunities offered by the U.S. women's movement and new discoveries in reproductive technologies. Influenced by the pervasive media and cultural messages suggesting that science had finally eclipsed Mother Nature, Zoll postponed motherhood until the age of 40. When things don't progress as she had hoped, she enters a world of medical seduction and bioethical quagmires. Desperate to conceive, she surrenders to unproven treatments and procedures only to learn that the odds of becoming a mother through reproductive technologies are far less than she and her generation had been led to believe.
Download or read book Breastfeeding and the Pursuit of Happiness written by Phyllis L.F. Rippey and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Breastfeeding is a human bodily function that differs in practice across cultural and historical boundaries, yet is framed as “natural” and morally virtuous. Breastfeeding and the Pursuit of Happiness rejects the dichotomy of right versus wrong, exploring the historical, political, and symbolic roots of this sacrosanct belief in “breast is best” – from allusions to biblical milk and honey to contemporary claims of parenting and wellness experts. Within disparate contexts such as medieval Europe, eighteenth-century France, contemporary Indonesia, and the mommy blogosphere, Phyllis Rippey finds that infant feeding prescriptions often serve the interests of the powerful rather than meeting the needs of women, infants, and families. Upending some of our most cherished beliefs about the maternal breast, Rippey reveals the ways historical and contemporary debates over breast versus bottle feeding distract from the underlying issues of poverty, environmental destruction, and violence against women. Rippey balances science-based and historical analysis with the stories of lesbian mothers and trans fathers, Black and White breastfeeding advocates, and Indonesian mothers, among other mothers who express feelings of empowerment, pleasure, pain, and moral failure. At turns witty, heartbreaking, and intellectually compelling, Breastfeeding and the Pursuit of Happiness draws on Hannah Arendt, Black feminist thought, affect theory, the ethics of care, and theories of political humility to offer a new framework for valuing and affirming the human power of giving and receiving care, including through the breast.
Download or read book In Pursuit of Disobedient Women written by Dionne Searcey and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a reporter for The New York Times uproots her family to move to West Africa, she manages her new role as breadwinner while finding women cleverly navigating extraordinary circumstances in a forgotten place for much of the Western world. “A story you will not soon forget.”—Kathryn Bigelow, Academy Award–winning director of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty In 2015, Dionne Searcey was covering the economy for The New York Times, living in Brooklyn with her husband and three young children. Saddled with the demands of a dual-career household and motherhood in an urban setting, her life was in a rut. She decided to pursue a job as the paper’s West Africa bureau chief, an amazing but daunting opportunity to cover a swath of territory encompassing two dozen countries and 500 million people. Landing with her family in Dakar, Senegal, she quickly found their lives turned upside down as they struggled to figure out their place in this new region, along with a new family dynamic where she was the main breadwinner flying off to work while her husband stayed behind to manage the home front. In Pursuit of Disobedient Women follows Searcey’s sometimes harrowing, sometimes rollicking experiences of her work in the field, the most powerful of which, for her, center on the extraordinary lives and struggles of the women she encounters. As she tries to get an American audience subsumed by the age of Trump and inspired by a feminist revival to pay attention, she is gone from her family for sometimes weeks at a time, covering stories like Boko Haram–conscripted teen-girl suicide bombers or young women in small villages shaking up social norms by getting out of bad marriages. Ultimately, Searcey returns home to reconcile with skinned knees and school plays that happen without her and a begrudging husband thrown into the role of primary parent. Life, for Searcey, as with most of us, is a balancing act. She weaves a tapestry of women living at the crossroads of old-fashioned patriarchy and an increasingly globalized and connected world. The result is a deeply personal and highly compelling look into a modern-day marriage and a world most of us have barely considered. Readers will find Searcey’s struggles, both with her family and those of the women she meets along the way, familiar and relatable in this smart and moving memoir.
Download or read book Pursuit written by Joyce Carol Oates and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2019-09-27 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author, “a compelling domestic horror story” of a new bride haunted by childhood nightmares (Kirkus Reviews). Less than twenty-four hours after exchanging vows with her new husband, Willem, Abby steps out into traffic. As his wife lies in her hospital bed, sleeping in fits and starts, Willem tries to determine whether this was an absentminded accident or a premeditated plunge, and he quickly discovers a mysterious set of clues about what his wife might be hiding. Why, for example is there a rash-like red mark circling her wrist? What does she dream about that causes her to wake from the sound of her own screams? Slowly, Abby begins to open up to her husband, revealing to him what she has never shared with anyone before—a story of a terrified mother; a jealous, drug-addled father; a daughter’s terrifying captivity; and the demons behind her terrible recurring dreams of wandering through a field ridden with human skulls and bones… From a recipient of a National Book Award and three Bram Stoker Awards, this suspenseful, twisting tale, named one of the scariest books of the year by Kirkus Reviews, is a “fast-paced examination of the destructive and restorative nature of obsessive love” (Booklist).
Download or read book Pursuit written by Karen Robards and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-03-24 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Guilty When the First Lady dies in a fiery car crash, rookie attorney Jessica Ford is the only survivor of the tragedy. As the nation mourns, Ford has reason to believe it wasn't an accident. One by one, others in the First Lady's inner circle are being killed. Jessica must find out why- before she's next.
Download or read book The Honest Life written by Jessica Alba and published by Rodale. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Golden Globe-nominated actress and the co-founder of The Honest Company counsels busy moms on how to make affordable and healthy choices for their families without sacrificing style, sharing a variety of family-friendly recipes, eco-friendly decorating tips and natural beauty-care advice. Original. 150,000 first printing.
Download or read book Motherhood written by Sheila Heti and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of How Should a Person Be? (“one of the most talked-about books of the year”—Time Magazine) and the New York Times Bestseller Women in Clothes comes a daring novel about whether to have children. In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim and made How Should A Person Be? required reading for a generation. In her late thirties, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti’s intimate and urgent novel considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism, and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home. Motherhood is a courageous, keenly felt, and starkly original novel that will surely spark lively conversations about womanhood, parenthood, and about how—and for whom—to live.
Download or read book The Pursuit of William Abbey written by Claire North and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hauntingly powerful novel about how the choices we make can stay with us forever, by the award-winning author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and 84K. South Africa in the 1880s. A young and naive English doctor by the name of William Abbey witnesses the lynching of a local boy by the white colonists. As the child dies, his mother curses William. William begins to understand what the curse means when the shadow of the dead boy starts following him across the world. It never stops, never rests. It can cross oceans and mountains. And if it catches him, the person he loves most in the world will die. Gripping, moving, and thought-provoking, The Pursuit of William Abbey proves once again that Claire North is one of the most innovative voices in modern fiction. Previous books by Claire North:The First Fifteen Lives of Harry AugustTouchThe Sudden Appearance of HopeThe End of the Day84KThe Gameshouse Previous books written as Kate Griffin:Matthew Swift novels:A Madness of AngelsThe Midnight MayorThe Neon CourtThe Minority Council Magicals Anonymous novels:Stray SoulsThe Glass God
Download or read book Risen Motherhood Deluxe Edition written by Emily Jensen and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THIS HIGHLY GIFTABLE DELUXE EDITION OF THE BESTSELLER INCLUDES THREE ALL-NEW CHAPTERS Motherhood is hard. In a world of five-step lists and silver-bullet solutions to become perfect parents, mothers are burdened with mixed messages about who they are and what choices they should make. If you feel pulled between high-fives and hard words, with culture’s solutions only raising more questions, you’re not alone. But there is hope. You might think that Scripture doesn’t have much to say about the food you make for breakfast, how you view your postpartum body, or what school choice you make for your children, but a deeper look reveals that the Bible provides the framework for finding answers to your specific questions about modern motherhood. Emily Jensen and Laura Wifler help you understand and apply the gospel to common issues moms face so you can connect your Sunday morning faith to the Monday morning tantrum. Discover how closely the gospel connects with today’s motherhood. Join Emily and Laura as they walk through the redemptive story and reveal how the gospel applies to your everyday life, bringing hope, freedom, and joy in every area of motherhood.
Download or read book The Fringe Hours written by Jessica N. Turner and published by Revell. This book was released on 2015-02-17 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every woman has had this experience: you get to the end of the day and realize you did nothing for you. And if you go days, weeks, or even months in this cycle, you begin to feel like you have lost a bit of yourself. While life is busy with a litany of must-dos--work, parenting, keeping house, grocery shopping, laundry and on and on--women do not have to push their own needs aside. Yet this is often what happens. There's just no time, right? Wrong. In this practical and liberating book, Jessica Turner empowers women to take back pockets of time they already have in their day in order to practice self-care and do the things they love. Turner uses her own experiences and those of women across the country to teach readers how to balance their many responsibilities while still taking time to invest in themselves. She also addresses barriers to this lifestyle, such as comparison and guilt, and demonstrates how eliminating these feelings and making changes to one's schedule will make the reader a better wife, mother, and friend. Perfect for any woman who is doing everything for everyone--except herself--The Fringe Hours is ideal for both individuals and small group use.
