Motherhood got into focus of social researchers in 1960—1970s. Since that time it is a rich and rapidly developing debate. This article provides an overview of contemporary Western sociological discussion about mother-hood. The author identifies three key vectors of research of motherhood: a pub-lic/private motherhood, “bad”/“good” motherhood, oppression/possibilities of motherhood. In the first discussion researchers are focused on the production of motherhood in public discourses and institutions, they consider as well how pub-lic ideals of motherhood affect women’s experience and identification. The sig-nificant part of the discussion consists of the research devoted to the study of combining work and motherhood by women. The second area of research examines how women are labeled as good or bad mothers, how women are proving for themselves the correctness of their own motherhood, and how they redefine the stigmatizing label of “bad” mother at the level of narration and practices. And the last area discussion, deeply rooted in feminism, is built around the analysis of cultural oppression to motherhood and of the subjective and ob-jective resources of motherhood in a woman’s life. The author understands the genre limitations of the review and does not claim to cover the whole rich and contradictory discussion. She offers the reader her own view of the contem-porary debate about motherhood, highlighting important, from her point of view,conceptions, research categories, and interpretations.read in PDF>>>
