Motherhood Discounted:
Care Work in America Before and After Roe
New Book
American politicians of all stripes repeatedly declare their intention to boost autonomy by getting rid of “dependency.”
They aim to do this by slashing public support for care work, especially for mothers, as if mothers were useless. But mothering is the essential work of reproducing society. Vilifying dependency renders this work invisible, turning mothers into debtors rather than creditors and making it impossible for them to demand compensation for the work they’re doing—or to refuse to do it. This coercion burst onto the surface in 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Center that women have no right not to be forced to reproduce.
In Motherhood Discounted, lawyer Carolyn McConnell turns a searching eye on the mythology of autonomy, asking what it is and what it is for. She traces this myth’s development through American history, framing 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.
The urgent question in the wake of Dobbs, and now the reign of Trump and Musk, is, How could this happen in America? In Motherhood Discounted, McConnell sets out to answer that question and to galvanize us all into charting a different course.
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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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