Episode 1: Andrea O'Reilly, Ph.D. - Patriarchal Motherhood and Matricentric Feminism

The Re-Imagining Motherhood Podcast

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Welcome to episode ONE of the Re-Imagining Motherhood podcast!
I am thrilled to bring you Andrea O'Reilly, Ph.D., founder of Motherhood Studies and Matricentric Feminism. In this episode we talk all things patriarchal Motherhood and Matricentric Feminism. She is a wealth of knowledge and has so much to offer mothers everywhere!
Episode Summary:
We dive into the concepts of the "Good Mother" myth and why so many Mothers never feel "good enough" in their mothering - HINT - it isn't "you"...it's the greater Motherhood culture of which we mother within. And now, after this episode, you will have words to talk about it!
From mom rage to mom burnout, from traditional gender roles to the lack of social supports, Mothers today are feeling the intensity of the motherload. The good news is that we, as Mothers and those that support them, can take small steps to find community and work towards empowered mothering.
Additional episode resources:
In (M)otherwords: Writings on Mothering and Motherhood - O'Reilly's latest book is NOW available for purchase!
Register for the virtual book club here - Mothers, Mothering and Motherhood in Contemporary Fiction.
Demeter Press publications available here.
Dr. Andrea O'Reilly full bio:
Dr. Andrea O’Reilly is internationally recognized as the founder of Motherhood Studies (2006) and its subfield Maternal Theory (2007), and creator of Matricentric Feminism, a feminism for and about mothers (2016) and Matricritics, a literary theory and practice for a reading of mother- focused texts (2021). She is full professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at York University, founder/editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative and publisher of Demeter Press. She is co-editor/editor of thirty plus books on many motherhood topics including: Maternal Theory, Feminist Mothering, Young Mothers, Monstrous Mothers, Maternal Regret, Normative Motherhood, Mothers and Sons, Mothers and Daughters, Maternal
Texts. She is author of three monographs including most recently Matricentric Feminism: Theory Activism, Practice, the 2 nd Edition (2021). In spring 2024 a collection of her essays, In (M)otherwords; Writings on Mothering and Motherhood, 2009-2024, will be published and in fall 2024 her next edited book, The Mother Wave: Theorizing, Enacting, and Representing Matricentric Feminism will be published.
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