TORONTO, May 2, 2008 -- The best gift young mothers can give themselves this Mother’s Day is to resist public opinion that is hyper-critical of young moms, says a York University professor exploring ways to empower mothers.
“Young, disadvantaged mothers, in particular, must continually prove their fitness for parenting to the world at large,” said Professor Andrea O’Reilly, founder and director of York’s Association for Research on Mothering. “If I slip up as a middle class mom, I’m not going to lose my baby, but young moms are constantly under surveillance.”
O’Reilly is receiving a $71,905 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council International Opportunity Fund grant to study mother centres internationally. Her goal is to develop empowerment programs specifically for mothers under the age of 25 in Canada.
Support that young mothers receive from other like-minded mothers enables them to resist the moniker of the delinquent parent, O’Reilly said.
“Empowering mothers of all ages means challenging the middle-class idea of motherhood that says you have to be a martyr, you have to be sacrificial and give up your identity to be a good mother.”
O’Reilly will collaborate with researchers and agencies in Canada, the U.S., Australia and England to examine the world’s most successful mothering-empowerment programs. These include the Mothers International Empowerment Network, founded in Germany in 1985 with over 700 centres in 15 countries, and the National Association of Mothers’ Centers, founded in 1973 with centres in the U.S., Australia and Nigeria.
The research will be the first of its kind that specifically addresses the needs of mothers under the age of 25. It will build upon Canadian research on empowered mothering, positioning Canada as a leader in motherhood scholarship.
O’Reilly is planning two pilot projects in the Jane and Finch area of Toronto next January that will offer young mother empowerment programming based on her research results.
O’Reilly is the author of 14 books, including Rocking the Cradle: Thoughts on Motherhood, Feminism and the Possibility of Empowered Mothering (Demeter Press, 2006). She designed and taught the first university course on mothering in 1991.
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 190,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 24 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
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Media contact:
Killeen Kelly, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x22938 / killeenk@yorku.ca
