Any understanding of mothering and motherhood must contend with the patriarchal ideology of motherhood, as it serves as the conventional lens that shapes common thinking, experiences, and practices regarding mothers, mothering, and motherhood.

An ideology is a collection of related ideas and beliefs that underlie the practices of a society, a class, or other socially significant groups of people. Ideology both shapes and is shaped by the way people look at and organize their thinking about the world and themselves. While different groups develop different ideologies based on the distillation of their experiences, dominant ideologies representing dominant views are used to justify an existing or desired arrangement of power, authority, wealth, and status in a society. Ideologies are supported by a social system of values, attitudes, ...