CGS Course Probes Economic Realities of Motherhood
Recently featured in the BU Today series “One Class One Day,” Dr. Lynn O’Brien Hallstein’s Cultural Constructions of Motherhood course helps students to realize motherhood’s ever increasing economic costs. Hallstein, associate professor of rhetoric at the College of General Studies, begins her discussion section with a reference to feminist Simone de Beauvoir, who wrote, “No woman should be authorized to stay at home to bring up her children…because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one.”
In today’s society many women would disagree with Beauvoir’s sentiments regarding motherhood. There does not need to be a choice between selfhood and motherhood, but Hallstein says women today are still paying “the motherhood penalty”– a scramble to find affordable child care if women return to work, and a possible loss of income and career advancement potential if they don’t.
Hallstein guides her students with discussion points that encourage them to share their views on today’s social climate, where the role of mother is often fetishized, particularly among celebrities, and the victories of feminist foot soldiers are often forgotten or dismissed. She encourages students to ponder: What are the economic costs? There are economic costs to society, the costs to women’s professional careers, the costs to women’s economic security, the unequal costs of divorce, and the economic costs to the workplace. Those costs ultimately add up to the motherhood penalty.
By examining the motherhood penalty, Hallstein tells BU Today she wants her students to realize the penalty “has not shown any signs of declining over time,” but we have to work to find solutions to these very real problems that women continue to face in today’s society.