The paper presents the results of both the theoretical and empirical research of social beliefs about motherhood. It is shown that social beliefs about motherhood are rather heterogeneous. They include some open content according to which motherhood is highly respected and emotionally positive social role, but there also are some implicit components that contain conflicting social expectations. These contradictions are universal from the cultural point of view but are different in different cultures.
The authors chose to sample posts on motherhood from a Russian based parenting website (http://forum.materinstvo.ru/). The method of inductive content-analysis was applied, and 667 posts were analyzed in total. The results have shown that in modern Russian society the conflicting content of social beliefs about motherhood is connected with the contradictions in the social expectations imposed on a woman in a maternity role. It is supposed that а mother is responsible for her children’s and other family members’ wellbeing in almost every realm of life. It makes fulfillment of those expectations impossible. These contradictions can lead to various interpersonal conflicts (both within the family and outside it), and can form a basis for different forms of mother’s discrimination in varied social contexts as well as lead to a self-discrimination phenomena manifestation.
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