The Kojo Nnamdi Show

Hello, Great to hear your program. I found it via the site 'mothers ought to have equal rights'. Very interesting to hear about your research and I will see if I can find a copy. I have been working on a Phd for some years now in Australia on maternal subjectivity. I cite research under the banner of Transition to Parenthood (a lot from the USA) that shows high levels of depression marital dissatisfaction and issues related to identiy after the birth of an infant. The vast majority of couples are attempting to achieve a form of gender equal or egalitarian family after the birth but have been unable to do so. This is relevant to your work. I did indepth interviews with sixteen women in Australia and found that there is a gap between the expectations and the experiences after the birth of a child. There is a need for institutional change in response to issues related to care - we have moved from a breadwinner model of family (male breadwinner and female carer) to an independent worker model - which does not account for care, thus the care crisis. There is important work by Martha Fineman in the Autonomy Myth and Eva Kittay, Loves Labor that present a 'dependency theory' that helps to explain these issues. There is also a swag of literature on 'care' including Nancy Fraser, Justice Interruptus - talking about a 'universal carer model' of wagefixing. Also Matha Nussbaum, amongst other talking about reconceptualizing the welfare state - transformational change in regard to care - this is where the focus needs to go. Best, Joannie