Motherhood: a form of oppression?

Abstract

This article addresses the following question: would motherhood be a form of oppression? For that, we start from the concept of oppression formulated by bell hooks. In order to analyze the experience of motherhood as lived by a single subject, but, at the same time, constrained by gendered social structures, we will anchor most of our analysis in Iris Young. The author's thinking is skillful in interweaving a phenomenological approach with social criticism, addressing problems that arise in feminist agendas about subjectivities in relation to social markers. It is also relevant, as Young is largely concerned with issues and problems related to motherhood, giving greater emphasis to this debate than we normally observe. Silvia Federici is also central at this point, providing tools to understand reproduction as a work. We tried to demonstrate how the tasks of care are largely related to motherhood and, probably, were naturalized as belonging from the female sphere as a result of the reproductive work itself.