Motherhood Discounted:
Care Work in America Before and After Roe

New Book

Why does America have such a problem offering social support for care work, when mothering is the essential work of reproducing society?  Carolyn McConnell blames the myth of autonomy that American individualism breeds: the idea that independence is always good and dependence always bad. Written in a lively personal style, Motherhood Discounted describes how patriarchal systems have extracted and compelled care work throughout American history. In the wake of Dobbs, and now with the country in the grips of Trump and a resurgent far right, this book provides surprising answers to the question, How could this happen in America? 

In Motherhood Discounted, McConnell turns a searching eye on autonomy, asking what it is and what it is for. Tracing this myth’s development through American history, she frames each episode with personal stories and incisive analysis. In doing so, she offers women readers of all ages seeking to understand their own experiences in these disturbing times a potent explanation for how we got here—and sounds a clarion call for political change.

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About the Author

Carolyn McConnell has published extensively on reproductive rights, feminism, and women’s history. She is a lawyer and holds graduate degrees in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University and nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. She lives in Seattle.

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  • “In this accessible, carefully researched book, Carolyn McConnell argues that autonomy is a myth that obscures the ways we are dependent on one another and acts as a cover to exploit unpaid reproductive labor from the most marginalized.”

    Emily Callaci
    Professor of history, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of Wages for Housework

  • “A breath of fresh air. As right-wing movements worldwide demand that women embrace motherhood as a matter of national security—while continuing to denigrate support for families as parasitism—McConnell’s message can’t come soon enough.”

    Kathryn Joyce
    Author of The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption and Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement

  • “This bold and illuminating book exposes the myth of autonomy as a lie that undermines reproductive rights and obscures the real source of our deeply unequal world. McConnell offers a path forward, a declaration of dependence that demands we think, act, and count differently.”

    Robin D.G. Kelley
    Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History, UCLA, and and PEN America Open Book Award–winning author of Thelonious Monk and Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional

  • “Drawing on both her personal experience and her deep knowledge of the law, she inspires us to imagine alternative modes of living in community, rooted in care.”

    Emily Callaci
    Professor of history, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of Wages of Housework

  • “This important book explains how the ‘autonomy myth’ blinds us to the reality that we all are dependent throughout our lives on social relationships and institutions, affecting not only individual lives but the entire society. Highly recommend.”

    Martha Albertson Fineman
    Robert W Woodruff Professor of Law, Emory University, and author of The Autonomy Myth: A Theory of Dependency

  • “McConnell creatively deploys an incisive, cutting analysis of seemingly disparate histories—from witchcraft to welfare, Cesarean sections to safety nets—to weave together a broader understanding of autonomy, care, and our unfulfilled social contract to both mothers and families.”

    Gretchen Sisson
    author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood

  • "A compelling argument that will inspire robust debate.  The author makes her case in supremely cogent and delightfully pointed terms, conducting an intensive interrogation of female oppression."

    Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

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