Beyond the Ideology of Motherhood: Leisure as Resistance

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Abstract
The structural view of power in feminist analysis to date has discouraged women as victims from thinking that anything they do at an individual level can be effective in the gender struggle. This article presents a view of power that incorporates resistance. Leisure as resistance for mothers of first babies is explored. The intersection of two contradictory discourses: the discourse on motherhood and that on human rights allows these mothers to transform some repressive aspects of motherhood. The vehicle is leisure, a legitimate area of autonomy concerning time and space. Strategies in this site of struggle include, refusal to do housework and cook, co-option of the father, relatives and other mothers in child-care responsibility for periods of time and refusal to adopt a victim mentality by organising and planning for self-space. Gains in control over labour and in gender power relationships at a strategic time in family relationships are potential outcomes.

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