Maternal Power/Powerlessness

Power-Over

Early feminist scholars concentrated on exploring power-over—the power that leads to oppression. This understanding of power led these scholars to examine domination and oppression, and the subsequent inequalities that followed for women. They argued that a woman's vulnerability to an exercise of power-over increased strongly if she became a mother. Hence, motherhood was viewed as a danger for women who, in that period of history, faced many inequalities that could lead to entrapment in such tribulations as poverty or violence.

Power-To

In the late 1970s, feminist maternal scholars began to claim that the emphasis placed on power-over resulted in mothers being viewed as powerless victims with no agency. Adrienne Rich argued that while mothers were oppressed by societal institutions, they were active agents who would enjoy the experience of mothering under different circumstances. Other feminist scholars argued that concentrating on power-over sustained patriarchal definitions and expressions of power, but ignored the ability of the less powerful to be agents of change, or to respond to oppression with resistance or creative acts. This form of power is now well recognized.

Power-With

Power-with is asserted by feminist theorist Amy Allen, who claims that power-with enabled second-wave feminists to bring about changes that benefited women in some areas of social life. Power-with is also evident in the lives of mothers in the form of support that is frequently received from their interactions with one another, particularly their own mothers, family members, and friends. Power-with leads to empowerment and is manifested on several levels—emotional, intellectual, and physical. Empowerment is important in the lives of mothers because dominant patriarchal forms of power lead to feelings of inadequacy and disempowerment. Sharing of feelings such as guilt and inadequacy with other mothers enables a mother to realize the commonality of those reactions.

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