NorM - Norms around Motherhood: What makes a ‘good’ mother? New insights into normative models of ‘good motherhood’ in Austria

Nowadays, mothers are no longer constrained to the role of family carer and they increasingly participate in education and labour markets. Yet, the idea that women are mainly responsible for their children’s care persists in social norms about motherhood. Despite many studies investigating this ‘incomplete’ revolution, a differentiated view on social norms about motherhood remains elusive, particularly regarding collectively constructed and potentially conflicting norms, their meanings and consequences for individual mothers, and their integration into strategies of action.

The proposed study will address these research gaps by pursuing two main objectives: (a) evaluating similarities and differences in collective constructions of ‘good’ mothers among Austrians with different regional, educational, gender, parental status, and age backgrounds, and (b) providing in-depth insights into individual mothers’ strategies for dealing with normative discourses. Our main research questions are as follows: What are normative models of good motherhood in different Austrian contexts, and how are they constructed, justified, and managed collectively and individually?

Norms and discourse around motherhood strongly depend on policy. For example, welfare states pursue legal constructs of ‘good’ motherhood that outline specific policies for work leave, employment, and childcare. As such, these policies make assumptions about what defines a ‘good’ mother. In the European Union, Austria represents a comparably conservative welfare state with policies that offer a wide range of childcare options. It also has relatively long parental leaves of two or more years, on average. We will analyse how different normative constructions of good motherhood relate to each other and to legal regulations, institutional settings, and structural settings within the Austrian context.

We will take a differentiated view on motherhood, following and extending the cultural approach, to evaluate whether and how concurrent normative constructs coexist. Relying on a multi-method sequential research design, we will conduct focus group discussions in Austria, using vignettes. To capture accurate social norms about motherhood, focus group members will vary by gender, education level, regional background, age, and parental status. Using individual interviews, we will also reconstruct young mothers’ strategies in dealing with normative accounts. Data analysis will be based on the documentary method to capture concurrent normative tendencies and their relevance in individuals’ lives. By identifying norms in their plurality, this project established a basis for future research on the individual and social consequences of conformity to and deviance from norms.

Research team: Ulrike Zartler (PI), Eva-Maria Schmidt (post-doctoral researcher), Vera Dafert (pre-doctoral researcher)