title: Motherhood as a Gendered Entitlement: Intentionality, "Othering," and Homosociality in the Online Infertility Community.
abstract: Motherhood is one of the most enduring rites of passage to adult femininity for women. However, not all women have access to motherhood. In this paper, I explore the online infertility community wherein women blog to process their exclusion, expressing incredulity about the prospect of never having a biological child of their own. Women understand their infertility as an injustice, leading them to lay claim to motherhood. I argue that how women lay claim to motherhood changes our understanding of motherhood as a gendered norm. Motherhood is more than a pursuit of a gender identity; it is also a gendered entitlement. This research pushes analytic conceptualizations of motherhood forward, while also empirically enriching our knowledge about women's homosociality.
authors.affiliation: Mount Royal University.
authors.forename: Krista
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Whitehead
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D057218:Blogging; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007246:Infertility / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D012649:Self Concept; D012934:Social Isolation / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult