For more than two decades, the study of motherhood has focused on three main categories: motherhood as institution, motherhood as experience, and motherhood as identity or subjectivity. While this work has been groundbreaking, it fails to account for motherhood in the twenty-first century, which has been transformed by increasing agency, along with immense social, scientific, and technological changes. A pioneer of modern motherhood studies, Andrea O'Reilly explores motherhood's representation and practice today. Her book considers developments that were unimaginable even a decade ago-the Internet, interracial surrogacy, raising transchildren, male mothering, intensive mothering, queer parenting, species-altering applications of new biotechnologies, and mothering in the post-9/11 era. Her work pulls together a range of disciplines and diverse themes in motherhood studies, confronting the effects of globalization, HIV/AIDS, welfare reform, political mothers, third wave feminism, and the evolving motherhood movement. O'Reilly incorporates Chicana, African-American, Canadian, Muslim, queer, low-income, trans, and lesbian perspectives. Her writing invites dialogue and debate so that readers can engage with these issues while also learning from them.
