Overview

For readers trying to make sense of America’s political turmoil and eroding reproductive rights, an incisive examination, enhanced with personal stories, of how care work has been extracted and compelled throughout American history. In the wake of Dobbs, and now with the country in the grip of Trump and a resurgent far right, the question everyone seems to be asking is—How could this happen in America? Lawyer Carolyn McConnell has a few ideas. After becoming a mother, McConnell was forced to face the myth of autonomy that American individualism breeds: the idea that independence is always good and dependence always bad. Why does America have such a problem offering social support for care work, she wondered, when mothering is the essential work of reproducing society? In Motherhood Discounted, McConnell turns a searching eye on autonomy, asking what it is and what it is for. Tracing this myth’s development through American history, she frames each episode with personal stories and incisive analysis. In doing so, she offers women readers of all ages seeking to understand their own experiences in these disturbing times a potent explanation for how we got here—and sounds a clarion call for political change.

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Reviews

""In this accessible, carefully researched book, Carolyn McConnell inspires us to imagine alternative modes of living in community, rooted in care and a robust recognition of our interdependence.""--Emily Callaci, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Wages for Housework ""This important book explains how the 'autonomy myth' blinds us to the reality that we all are dependent throughout our lives on social relationships, and institutions. Carolyn McConnell uses her experience as a mother to compellingly demonstrate how this affects not only individual lives but the entire society. Highly recommend.""--Martha Albertson Fineman, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law and author of The Autonomy Myth ""Who's afraid of dependency? Certainly not Carolyn McConnell, whose bold and illuminating book exposes the myth of autonomy for what it is: a lie that effectively devalues and exploits care work; normalizes patriarchy, poverty, racism, and ableism; undermines reproductive rights; endangers mothers and children; and obscures the real source of our deeply unequal world. McConnell offers a path forward, a declaration of dependence that demands we think, act, and count differently.""--Robin D. G. Kelley, PEN America Open Book Award-winning author of Thelonious Monkand Yo' Mama's DisFunktional

Author Information

Carolyn McConnell is a lawyer and an activist dedicated to resisting attacks on public services. She has published extensively on reproductive rights, feminism, and women’s history and holds graduate degrees in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University and nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

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