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Postmaternity

Postmaternity is a new term, coined by Margaret Morganroth Gullette, for a woman's situation in life after her offspring have become independent adults. Historically, the term responds to social changes that began in the late 19th century in the United States, starting with decreasing fertility. Given increasing longevity since then, postmaternity may now last for decades, far longer than the period of intensive child rearing. Within the family life course, it inaugurates new relationships with adult offspring.

Ideologically, the term attempts to provide an alternative and more positive life-course narrative to women exposed first to pronatalism and then to “empty nest” discourse, as well as bad mothering. In literature, the theme of midlife women's relations to adult offspring—a potent dramatic resource at least since Clytemnestra's unsuccessful attempt to save her daughter Iphigenia from being sacrificed to Agamemnon's Trojan war—has been attracting many prominent women novelists.

Defining the Postmaternal Phase

When the postmaternal phase starts can be subjectively determined only by the woman in question, who may define it with reference to her first or her last offspring. The marker could be a child's first job, a certain age (18 or 21), going to college, leaving home, marriage, or more subtle marks of maturation, rather than by their reaching legal majority. As American women age from their early 40s into their mid-60s, the proportion with no offspring in the house—an objective measure—increases from 18 percent to 80 percent. About 40 percent of first exits occur at age 18. Changes in filial residency and altered parenting relationships are clearly typical midlife experiences for the latest cohorts of women to reach their middle years. Yet the transition is neither inevitable nor irreversible. A surprisingly large number of families have suffered the death of a child or adult child. In one survey of parents between 50 and 54, 14 percent of African Americans and 9 percent of non-Hispanic whites had lost a child.

Many midlife women continue to care for dependent offspring, including wounded veterans who may suffer from traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to Barbara Mitchell, about 40 percent of young adults, sometimes called boomerang kids, move back home temporarily after an initial departure. Because of low-paying jobs, high rents, high tuitions, high health insurance premiums, divorce, unemployment, or lack of childcare, the family turns into a social safety net for young adults.

The Value and Quality of Postmaternal Life

The interpretation and value of the postmaternal stage have been contested since at least World War I. Women—especially middle-class white women—were choosing to bear fewer children and had finished mothering them earlier in life. In the traditional view, this left women with many years to live idle, useless, and out of a job. The term empty nest was coined in 1915 by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, who anticipated a dreary middle and old age for herself and postmaternal women like her. The term, indicating regret, sorrow, or shock, failed to anticipate a valuable life after intensive child rearing ended. A few early feminists anticipated that a better life for postmaternal mothers would depend on whether economic opportunities for women in general expanded.

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