History of ARM-A

At the conclusion of the successful conference “Theorizing and Representing Maternal Subjectivities” held at the University of Queensland, Brisbane in October 2005, it was decided that an Association for Research on Motherhood/Mothers/Motherwork be established. Dr. Marie Porter, who has been researching motherhood/mothering for the past  9-10 years, has been the driving force behind the establishment of our organisation in Australia. 

It was proposed the association be national and be used as a vehicle for future growth by obtaining funding to:

• Establish a maternal scholarship research centre
• Conduct seminars
• Organise conferences
• Obtain recognition for the field as a legitimate area of academic study.

The Organisation

Although based in Brisbane, due to distances, meetings will be state based except, when possible, held in conjunction with the biennial conferences. Current office bearers are; President: Marie Porter. Secretary: Jenny Jones and Treasurer: Helen Farley.
Members of the group who attend meetings participate fully. 

The Queensland group is having monthly meetings (currently last Saturday of the month) at which we clarify ideas regarding the future of the Association. We look forward to news of other state based meetings to be circulated nationally.

A national news group for the exchange of information and news is available at ArmAustralia@yahoogroups.com

Aims and Objectives of the Association

Promotion of feminist scholarship on feminist mothering and related areas of research.

• Peer support for researchers within the field of mothering and motherhood. This may be achieved through social activities, conferences, reading and commenting on others’ work.
• Promotion of awareness of the importance of mothering in academia and the wider community.
   

The Name and Core Philosophy

The name 'Association for Research on Mothering - Australia' (ARM-A) was chosen because it clearly states that our organization is aligned with ARM [web link] at York University in Toronto, Canada, but shifts the focus to Australia and the pacific region. Furthermore, as a play on the word 'armour', our title recognizes the battle we often face trying to get maternality, motherhood and motherwork recognised and valued. Furthermore, this punning on a masculine metaphor of war is strategically utilized to foreground the fight that women have faced, and still face, in instituting a feminist symbolic value for the figure of the “mother” in our societies, beyond ‘her’ patriarchally defined, oppressive conceptualisation.

Rejecting the biologically determinist positioning that reduces women to the equivalent position of mother, we thereby accept Sara Ruddick’s definition of mothering and motherwork as the work required to grow, preserve and train a newborn into a responsible adult (Maternal Thinking). We therefore see mothering/mother work as a gender-neutral endeavour. That is, motherwork is understood as a particular form of work that needs to be valued and recompensed, whether performed by a man or a woman.

However, this name, ARM-A, also speaks to the need to (re)evaluate, (re)present and indeed (re)create, with valour, symbolic representations of women and maternity that serve as progressive possibilities for women. We insist that our female bodies and their productive capacities, along with the work those bodies provide, have never been truly valued in the West. We insist that such a de-valuing functions as a major component of women’s oppression. Thus, our intellectual endeavour concerns the fight against this dominant anti-feminist ideology by persistently and insistently re-inscribing women’s “labour” (in all senses of the term) into the realms of culture and society.

Finally, there is another possibility that arises through the enunciation of our name: ARM-A is somewhat homologous with the French word amour (love). As a feminist body of scholars, we are dedicated to the revaluing of women’s roles in society, particularly their status as women and mothers, for the purpose of promoting a valuable love and friendship between women: a strong and genuine sisterhood. As such, our name acknowledges and bears allegiance to our academic fore-mothers in this field (notably Prof. Andrea O’Reilly and the pivotal early feminist researchers in the area such as Adrienne Rich, Sara  Ruddick, Ann Oakley, Jessie Bernard, Ann Dally, Betsy Wearing, Kerreen Reiger and Lyn Richards) and their symbolic daughters (the members of ARM and the members of ARM-A). As a feminist association researching motherhood, motherwork and historical and cultural conceptualizations of “mother,” we are, in other words, intellectually committed to the development of a symbolic female genealogy.

Contact   Dr Marie Porter, m.porter2uq.edu.au