Stage Mothers: A Qualitative Analysis of Women’s Work Experiences as Mothers in Toronto Theatre

TLDR: A recent survey of women's theatre practice on the subject of motherhood can be found in this paper, with the exception of a handful of references, a topic that has been all but absent from the literature.

Abstract: Despite the fact that the representation of patriarchal motherhood has been ubiquitous in dramatic literature as it continues to be reified, codified and upheld as one of-if not the most-central relationships in the nuclear family, making it a much studied element of early human development and leaving it well documented in the annals of theatre history, mothering remains, with the exception of a handful of references, a topic that has been all but absent fiom writing on women's theatre practice. There are reasons for this dearth of scholarship, to be sure. Ostensibly, patriarchal divisions of the public and private spheres of life have deliberately relegated women's theatre practice as external from their domestic responsibilities by seeing childrearing as women's work that is separate from any they might perform in the public realm. But as Adrienne Rich (1986) and other feminist theorists (i.e., Peters, 1997;Abbeyand O'ReiUy, 1998; Fox, 1998; D u q , Mandell & Pupo, 1989) have taught us, motherhood is a part of the paid labour force and is present in each and eve~ywork sector in which women participate. As feminist sociologist Bonnie Fox notes: