Managing Mothers to Build Their Child's Worth: The Economic Positioning of the Maternal Role

Abstract

Using discursive analysis, the author uncovers the societal interest over the past centuy related to the body and mind of the child. Using the concept of ‘biopolitics' – of national risk management to the body politic – the author plots some changes in Western states' interests in the mother and child dyad. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the author argues, a eugenics discourse constructed maternal health as an issue of national hygiene. Over the twentieth century, the position of mothers has been reduced, their role increasingly viewed as necessary to the workforce and their children seen as needing ‘education’. Today, there is interest, with the support of ‘qualified’ early childhood teachers, in managing the mother–child relationship to build children's neurological and social skills in order for them to be able to contribute as future workers to the economic wealth of the state.