Mums — our unsung heroes

Mothering should be taught at universities to give more value to a precious and thankless job, according to University of Queensland researcher and grandmother Marie Porter.

The UQ PhD student Marie Porter, who has been researching mothering in Australia in the 1950s and 60s, said today’s mothers were doing it tougher then their grandparents ever did in some ways.

Ms Porter said mothers generally felt more isolated, had less family time, support and self-worth and were having children later in life.

She said more child care places, better maternity leave and more support would benefit mothers but a university course in mothering might also help.

“Why haven’t we got a subject that relates to motherhood and different ways of mothering at university?” Ms Porter said.

“I could go into a library and there would be a whole bank of books on Henry the Eighth or Cromwell, but trying finding books about mothering written by mothers. There are comparatively few.

“You tell me what’s most important today in Australia?”

Mrs Porter said such a subject could teach different styles of mothering, mothering history, work expectations, pressures on mothers to be good role models and parents as well as religious influence on mothering.

Having raised three sons, including one child with a disability and now with four grandchildren, Ms Porter is about to finish her PhD through UQ’s School of History, Philosophy, Religion, and Classics.

She believed mothering, which could be done by men, women or family groups, was undervalued by society because there were no financial gains from rearing children.

“Mothering is a huge area of life, and it has not been researched except by people who are usually not mothers and their interest is usually telling mothers what to do or what they’ve done wrong.”

Ms Porter is part of a committee organising Australia’s Third International Academic Conference on Mothering from September 29 to October 1 at UQ.

She said the academic conference would explore motherhood histories, activism and social standards, discrimination and expectations.

About 50 academics from Australian and international universities will present daily in UQ`s General Purpose South Building (building 78).

It costs $176 to attend the conference which includes food or $16.50 for the keynote address.

A book about the social upheavals and challenges facing mothers called, Motherhood: Power and Oppression, will be launched — based on the first mothering conference in 2001.

Ms Porter said the book explored the experiences of motherhood such as what factors impinged on them and what society says motherhood should feel like and what motherhood was really like.

For more details on the conference, visit http://www.uq.edu.au/mothering/

Media inquiries: Ms Porter (0421 031 485, 3365 7246, m.porter@uq.edu.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (3365 2619).