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Cited by 198Family Dynamics and RelationshipsWork-Family Balance ChallengesGender, Labor, and Family Dynamics

What makes a good mother? Two decades of research reflecting social norms of motherhood

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Schmidt, Eva‐Maria, Décieux, Fabienne, Zartler, Ulrike, Schnor, Christine·2023·Journal of Family Theory & Review
DOI 10.1111/jftr.12488PMC PMC10947397
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Abstract

Over the past two decades, scholars have investigated a multitude of different aspects of motherhood. This article provides a scoping review of research published from 2001 to 2021, covering 115 Social Science Citation Index‐referenced papers from WEIRD countries, with the aim of reconstructing social norms around motherhood and mothers' responses to them. The analysis is theoretically based on normological and praxeological concepts. The findings reveal five contemporary norms of motherhood that reflect both stability and increasing differentiation, and are related to five types of mothers: the norms of being attentive to the child (present mother), of securing the child's successful development (future‐oriented mother), of integrating employment into mothering (working mother), of being in control (public mother), and of being contented (happy mother). Relying on an intersectional lens, we analyze mothers' heterogeneous responses to these norms of motherhood, and examine how neoliberal demands build on and perpetuate inequalities.

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  • The intergenerational support literature is largely disconnected from contemporary scholarship on modern motherhood.

    “And yet this literature is largely disconnected from contemporary scholarship on modern motherhood, which tends to revolve around analyzing ever-more entrenched forms of intensive mothering (Faircloth, 2021;Fielding-Singh & Cooper, 2023;Schmidt et al., 2022).”

    From Mothers and grandmothers: <scp>Rethinking</scp> motherhood in the context of intergenerational caregiving (2025) · cites this paper as Schmidt et al., 2022

    The Abstract describes scholarship on motherhood as fragmented, and the Conclusions say studies of mothers with adult children were under-represented in this review. Neither section assesses whether the intergenerational support literature is disconnected from motherhood scholarship; a search for that relationship found no passage addressing it. The paper does discuss intensified demands on mothers, but that does not establish the claimed disconnect. (LLM, conf=0.74)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Schmidt, E., Décieux, F., Zartler, U., & Schnor, C.
Affiliations
  • University of Vienna (AT)
  • Johannes Kepler University of Linz (AT)
  • UCLouvain (BE)
Corresponding author
Schmidt, Eva‐Maria
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Family Theory & Review
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2022-11-22
Volume
15
Issue
1
Pages
57-77
ISSN
  • 1756-2570 (ISSN-L)
  • 1756-2589
DOI
10.1111/jftr.12488
PMC
PMC10947397
OpenAlex
W4309573461
Cited by
198
References
7
Citations by year
2026: 65 · 2025: 65 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 1
FWCI
55.07
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Family Theory & Review (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Austrian Science Fund (P 32745‐G)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Work-Family Balance Challenges
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
Keywords
motherhood, social norms, intersectionality, neoliberalism, gender inequality, working mothers, maternal control, child development

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