The Virtuous Motherhood: A Critique of New Parenting Models

Writings on motherhood have always been approached in two contrasting ways: on the one hand, there is the type that defends the experience of motherhood, often with a confessional tone, aiming to highlight its essential merits; on the other hand, there is the critique that separates femininity from motherhood, stemming from certain currents of contemporary feminism and generally adopting a scientific discourse. In contrast to these two approaches, this essay is structured as an analysis of the conditions of child-rearing in the contemporary world, while remaining committed to the most important, creative, and vital aspects of motherhood.

Starting from the social and cultural implications of parenting, Maria do Cebreiro Rabade examines parenting models imported, often subtly, from the world of work. These practices and mechanisms, displayed without restraint on social media, revolve around concepts of control and self-regulation—that is, control over the body and emotional control, whether of the child or the mother—and in all of them, the relationship between new forms of motherhood and neoliberalism is particularly evident.