ケンキュウ　ノート　センリャクテキ　ボセイ　シュギ　ノ　カノウセイ　ケア　ノ　リンリ　ト　ボセイ　ケンキュウ　ノ　セツゾク　ノ　タメ　ノ　セイリ

モトハシ, リエ

Motohashi, Rie

オオサカ ダイガク ダイガクイン ニンゲン カガク ケンキュウカ シャカイガク ニンゲンガク ジンルイガク ケンキュウシツ

Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

母性主義

フェミニズム

ケアの倫理

新自由主義

motherhood

maternalism

feminism

care ethics

neo-liberalism

Research Notes

This study describes a new perspective for analyzing motherhood norms in contemporary Japanese society through connecting care ethics and motherhood studies. Motherhood studies have revealed the “myth of motherhood”from the standpoint of social constructivism. In the 1990s and later, to correspond with the declining birthrate in society, motherhood studies replaced the category of motherhood with the more sexless category of parenthood because they had defi ned motherhood as a category opposed to individuality. On the other hand, feminist theories that relied on care ethics had not defi ned motherhood as a category, which opposed individuality. They had ascribed the practice of care to the individual condition of human beings. Therefore, caring was not self-sacrifice but rather a principal for living one’s life with others who share our vulnerability without using violence. Feminist theories relying on care ethics insist that we have to recognize that caring carries the possibility of political transformation through a criticism of the public/private split. This paper examines how these arguments about care defi ne the relationship between a mother and her child as representative of caring, and a strategy for the realization of gender equality. These perspectives on motherhood can be distinguished from essentialism, and I define these as strategic maternalism. Strategic maternalism is an analytical perspective that it is effective for discussing today’s Japanese women’s childcare situation, and women’s counter speech in mother’s social movements.