Overview

Mothers make history. For centuries, motherhood has sparked social and political change. Yet the acts of growing, birthing and nurturing children - and the power they hold - have been pushed to the margins, overlooked in our narratives of the past. In A Woman's Work, Elinor Cleghorn reveals the mothers, othermothers, midwives, activists, and community leaders who have shaped this extraordinary history. They include Hildegard of Bingen, the medieval nun and mystic with pioneering views about the maternal body; Mary Wollstonecraft, who laid the intellectual groundwork to release motherhood from male control; and Sojourner Truth, who drew attention to the abhorrent treatment of mothers under chattel slavery. Beginning in the ancient world, we learn how in each era, the patriarchy constructed its own idealised notion of motherhood - from the misogynistic dogma of the early church and the stigmatisation of single mothers in 17th century England all the way through to the post-war myth of the perfectly contented housewife. But we also learn how mothers of all classes and circumstances fought back, and lobbied to be valued, respected and supported - not as reproductive vessels, but as people. A Woman's Work is a radical and inspiring new history of mothering, and a timely reminder that the fight for reproductive freedom is far from over.

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9781399605434

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Reviews

An essential history of forgotten lives and labour * Leah Hazard, author of WOMB * A perfectly timed and illuminating triumph that consolidates Cleghorn's place among the foremost voices in medical history * Lindsey Fitzharris, bestselling author of THE FACEMAKER * [Written] with robust research and eloquent rage...a timely lesson on the dangers of allowing outdated patriarchal attitudes to shape modern public policy. * Elaine Weiss, author of SPELL FREEDOM and THE WOMAN'S HOUR * This is the book we need right now, freeing motherhood from history's margins and making it the story. From the Bronze Age to the present day, Cleghorn writes about the fight for mothers ""to be cared for, respected, supported and heard"" and her book does all of this and so much more. Huge in its scope and precise in its research, A Woman's Work is as powerful and astonishing as motherhood itself. * Marianne Levy, author of DON'T FORGET TO SCREAM *

An essential history of forgotten lives and labour * Leah Hazard, author of WOMB *

Author Information

Elinor Cleghorn is a feminist cultural historian, writer and researcher living in Sussex, UK. After receiving her PhD in humanities and cultural studies in 2012, she worked for three years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford on an interdisciplinary arts and medical humanities project. Her writing on women's health and its histories has been published in Wall Street Journal, BBC History Magazine, BBC Science Focus, New Scientist, and Vogue, and she has discussed her research on BBC Woman's Hour, NPR, and numerous podcasts. Elinor is the author of Unwell Women, which was published in 2021 in the UK and US, and has been translated across the world.

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