Search

Images and representations of parenting, and particularly mothering, have become commonplace on social media platforms over the past decade. These displays, however, take place in the context of popular contemporary discourses around gender and parenting that are in many ways prescriptive. This paper explores the constructions of mothering online through an analysis of posts about mothers on Mother’s Day from 2018 to 2020. Data were collected from Instagram and Twitter using hashtags such as #mothersday, #happymothersday and #motheringsunday. Both content and thematic analyses were conducted. This paper will consider three main themes that were identified in the data: “Beauty & biology”; “Grief & loss” and “Care (& COVID)”, with a focus on constructions of gendered parenting and family through the explicit celebration of the lives and roles of mothers. The findings provide insight into normative constructions of gender and how these are mediated through the affordances of social media platforms in a neoliberal context.

The identity of stepmother is, in many ways, a troubled one – constructed as “other” and often associated with notions of “wickedness” in literature and everyday talk. This paper reports findings from a study on the difficulties faced by stepmothers and how they use talk about their (male) partners, often constructing men as hapless, helpless or hopeless, to repair their “troubled” identities. The data were collected from a web forum for stepmothers based in the UK and 13 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with stepmothers. The analysis took a synthetic narrative-discursive methodological approach, underpinned by feminist theory with particular attention to the discourses that were drawn on by participants and the constraints that these imposed. This paper presents these findings in relation to three constructions of their partners through which repair work was attempted: men as in need of rescue; men as flawed fathers; and men as damaged. The paper concludes with some suggestions for supporting stepmothers by challenging dominant narratives around families in talk, in the media and in government and institutional policies.

In this paper we consider what it is that makes research feminist and relate this to Q methodology. Whilst acknowledging the multiplicity of feminist thought and approaches, we suggest that Q is an epistemologically versatile technique that can be usefully interwoven with diverse feminist concerns. We discuss four features of Q which we argue fit particularly comfortably into a broad feminist agenda: \ud (1) the engagement with marginality; (2) the process of interpretation; (3) the role of reflexivity; and (4) accessibility for novice researchers. We conclude that Q methodology, with its interest in and sensitivity to difference in perspectives, experiences and social realities, is compatible with feminist ideals and is an appropriate tool for producing psychological knowledge which can be used in the service of feminist principles.

While stepfamilies are not a new phenomenon, with recent divorce rates, they are now common and more likely to be formed following relationship breakdown rather than death (Pryor, 2004). Stepmothers today have to contend with the wicked stepmother myth, the idealization of motherhood, and gendered notions of parenting, not to mention discourses which position the biological nuclear family as the ideal and, by implication, other forms as deviant. Moreover, the limited previous research suggests greater stress for stepmothers than stepfathers (Nielsen, 1999; Christian, 2005). This study used Q methodology to explore the range of subjective experiences of stepmothers. A diverse sample of 29 stepmothers completed a 61-item Q sort generating six factors or distinct views of the experience of stepmothering. This paper analyses, names and presents these accounts. The results suggest greater variety and complexity of experience than is indicated by previous studies whilst the discussion focuses on the relevance and impact of the culturally dominant narratives mentioned above within stepmothers’ reports of their experience.