WGS 340 - Motherhood as Institution and Experience (4 Cr.)

Adrienne Rich describes motherhood as both an experience and an institution. This course will explore the institution of motherhood in the United States as well as the experience of mothering as a biological, social, political, and identity construct. The course will cover religious and cultural paradigms from the Virgin Mary to the Mommy Wars as well as mothering in a variety of gender, sexuality, race, and socio-economic contexts, the exclusion from or rejection of motherhood, and the often conflicted intersection of motherhood and feminism. One course in AMS or WGSS or instructor permission. Alternating spring semesters.