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RESEARCH PRODUCT

‘My life has changed, but his life hasn’t’: Making sense of the gendering of parenthood during the transition to motherhood

subject

description

A narrative approach to the study of the gendered nature of parenting acknowledges that different kinds of cultural narratives surround the couple relationship and parenting. This narrative study illustrates the process of the gendering of parenthood from the points of view of seven Finnish first-time mothers. The data were obtained from 28 in-depth longitudinal interviews. Two main narratives were found: a turbulent transformation and a smooth transformation narrative. The turbulent transformation narrative demonstrates how the transition to parenthood may lead to biographical disruption in first-time mothers’ lives. The contradictory cultural narratives of intensive mothering and shared parenthood created ambivalence in the women’s identifications with motherhood and negotiation of parenthood with their partner. For these women, traditional, gendered narratives supported narrative reorientation and the construction of a coherent identity as a mother and as a partner for the women. The smooth transformation narrative, in turn, showed that willingness and effort are required from both parties of the couple in order to depart from intensive mothering and to achieve shared parenting.