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A Feminist Discourse Analysis of Popular-Press Accounts of Postmaternity

School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand, michellabelle24{at}gmail.com

Ann Weatherall

School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand, ann.weatherall{at}vuw.ac.nz

Feminist research has examined a broad range of women's experiences as mothers. However, relatively few studies exist on postmaternity, colloquially the `empty nest'. The present study is a feminist discourse analysis of the variable ways postmaternal experiences were described in popular-press accounts. The analysis identified individual differences as an ideological albeit commonsense notion for interpreting different responses to the departure of adult offspring. Two discourses of womanhood, `modern' and `traditional', produced an ideological dilemma where the subject position `fit adult' conflicted with that of `good mother'. `Adjustment' was used rhetorically to manage that dilemma. The analysis also considered the ways gender differences were managed and the significance of `empty nest' as a pervasive metaphorical colloquialism for postmaternity. The results show that longstanding cultural beliefs about women as mothers still exert a powerful discursive force. However, women can now be represented as having lives beyond the domestic sphere. A dilemma arising in accounts of contemporary women at postmaternity is the conflicting identities of socially fit, well-adjusted adults and good mothers who mourn the loss of their children.

Key Words: empty nest • ideological dilemmas • motherhood

Feminism & Psychology, Vol. 19, No. 1, 89-108 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0959353508098621


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