O鈥橰eilly is an expert in motherhood research, founder and editor-in-chief of the聽Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, publisher of Demeter Press, author of 20-plus books,聽and professor in 91亚色鈥檚 School of Gender, Sexuality and Women鈥檚 Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS).

鈥淭he aim and purpose of my research over the last three decades is to put mothers and mothering at the centre of academic research and public policy. To achieve this, I believe, we need a feminism for mothers, what I have termed matricentric feminism 鈥� a feminism that makes motherhood the business of feminism by positioning mothers鈥� needs and concerns as the starting point for a theory and politics on and for women鈥檚 empowerment,鈥� says O鈥橰eilly. 鈥淚ndeed, a mother-centred feminism is needed because mothers 鈥� arguably more so than women in general 鈥� remain disempowered despite 40-plus years of feminism. With these three SSHRC-funded research projects, I hope to give voice to mothers whose identities and experiences have been particularly marginalized in scholarship and policy, older young mothers in Canada and mothers deleteriously impacted by the pandemic.鈥�

The awards are:

SSHRC Partnership Engagement Grant (January 2021) for 鈥淢others and COVID-19; The impact of the pandemic on mothers and mothering in Canada and Australia鈥�

This one-year, $24,927 grant will support a research project that examines the impact of COVID-19 and its aftermath on mothers and motherwork, with the aim of developing social research and public policy to inform, support, and empower mothers through and after the pandemic. Mothers do the bulk of domestic labour, childcare and eldercare, and with social isolation, the burden of care work has increased exponentially in both time and concern as mothers are running households with little or no support and under close to impossible conditions. However, there has been little media coverage or social research on how families are managing under COVID-19.

This project will examine Canadian and Australian mothers' unpaid work in the home (e.g. homeschooling, house cleaning, childcare and eldercare) and wage labour during a pandemic, and will examine the commonalities and differences between the countries. It involves 30 mothers (15 from Canada and 15 from Australia) who will be interviewed via Zoom from all regions of each country and with diverse backgrounds in terms of race, class, sexuality and ability.

The project will examine these challenges across Canada and Australia to consider and compare the impact of COVID-19 on mothers in different regions to understand the nuanced complexity of the pandemic and to develop appropriate resources and policies for each national context.

This Partnership Engagement Grant is the first to provide a comparative study of the impact of COVID-19 on mothers in Canada and Australia.

SSHRC Insight Grant (April 2021) for 鈥淥lder young mothers: An overlooked cohort in research and social policy鈥�

This is a three-year grant of $71,411 to support a project that examines the challenges facing "older young mothers" (aged between 18 and 24), such as access to post-secondary education, housing, employment, childcare, community support and advocacy, and the deleterious societal views and cultural representations of young motherhood. Current research on young motherhood largely focuses on younger teens; this study looks at the specific needs of young mothers at the adult end of the spectrum.

The project will contribute to current research on older young motherhood in three significant ways. First, with particular attention to how the new social construct of older young motherhood informs and frames their experiences of mothering, the project will assess current policies to develop ones that better address the challenges these mothers face. Second, by exploring how this cohort's experience with motherhood is shaped by race, class, ethnicity and geographic location, the study will contribute to our understanding of intersectionality. And third, the project will explore how older young mothers resist normative discourses that define and position them as unfit mothers to effect cultural change.

The project will assess how discourses and policies impact this new cohort of young mothers across cultural differences and how they may be resisted and reformed. The findings will be widely disseminated to community agencies, government, and the general public through research reports, policy briefs, media interviews and on social media.

SSHRC Connection Grant (July 2021) for the conference 鈥淢others, Families, and COVID-19: Building Back Better鈥�

This one-year, $24,250 grant supports the first international conference on the impact of COVID-19 on mothers and families. Current research shows that sustainable and holistic COVID-19 recovery will require more than a vaccine. In many ways, the pandemic has acted as a beacon, further exposing long-standing cracks in systems of caregiving, women's rights and gender equality.

The proposed conference, "Mothers, Families, and COVID-19: Building Back Better," co-hosted by the Mothers Matter Centre (MMC) and 91亚色, examines the impact of the pandemic on mothers' care work and wage labour in the context of employment, schooling, communities, families, and the relationships of parents and children. With a global perspective, the conference will explore the increasing complexity and demands of childcare, domestic labour, eldercare and home schooling under the pandemic protocols; the intricacies and difficulties of performing wage labour at home; the impact of the pandemic on mothers' employment; and the strategies mothers have used to manage the competing demands of care work and wage labour during the pandemic.

This conference, which has 87 confirmed speakers from 12 countries, will explore the impact of COVID-19 on mothers' wage work and care labour, with a focus on what "building back better" tangibly looks like for the mothers most affected. It will allow for a timely examination of, and response to, the impact of COVID-19 on mothers and families as countries transition to a post-pandemic world.

The knowledge mobilized by and through the conference will be widely disseminated as a report to diverse social agencies and will be preserved through the recording of the conference, which will be stored and made available through the MMC website. Moreover, articles developed from the conference will be published in a special double issue of The Journal of the Motherhood Initiative in 2022 and will be made available in open access format.

鈥淚 am deeply honoured and delighted to receive these grants that I hope will create new and innovative research and policy to empower these mothers and advance matricentric feminism,鈥� says O鈥橰eilly.

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The one-day institute, organized by Echo鈥檚 Chair in Women鈥檚 Mental Health Research in partnership with the Faculty of Health, will take place Friday, Sept. 27, from 9am to 4pm, at 280N 91亚色 Lanes, Keele campus. Lunch will be provided. RSVP to owhchair@yorku.ca by Sept. 13.

The keynote address will be delivered by the inaugural Lillian Wright Maternal-Child Postdoctoral Fellow聽Chang Su, looking at the effects of life stress, social support and cultural norms on parenting styles among mainland Chinese, European-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian immigrant mothers.

The day will also feature four researchers in the field of maternal-child health and several student poster presenters, as a chance for students, faculty and community members to share and learn.

Professor Deborah Davidson of the Department of Sociology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional studies will discuss familial and professional support during pregnancy and early motherhood for women with pre-existing diabetes. She will give a preliminary analysis of a view from the professionals in England and Canada.

Professor Nazilla Khanlou, the Echo Chair in Women鈥檚 Mental Health Research and academic lead of the Lillian Wright Maternal-Child Health Scholars Program, of the School of Nursing in the Faculty of Health, will talk about social support for immigrant mothers of children with disabilities.

Professor Tsorng-Yeh Lee of the School of Nursing will examine Chinese women鈥檚 experiences with maternity health-care services in Canada.

Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell of the Department of Psychology will ask the question: Can pain tell us more? She will also look into understanding the relationship between early childhood mental health and parent-child immunization behaviours.

The student presenters include:

• Bramilee Dhayanandhan (PhD candidate);
• Michael Miceli (PhD candidate);
• Jennifer Noseworthy (RN, MScN);
• Monica O鈥橬eill (masters candidate); and
• Nicole Racine (PhD candidate).

For more information, visit the Echo鈥檚 Chair in Women鈥檚 Mental Health Research website.

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The 21st Century Motherhood Movement: Mothers Speak Out on Why We Need to Change the World and How to Do It, released this week, is touted as the first anthology of its kind. Published by , it features more than 80 chapters representing motherhood organizations from around the globe.

鈥淲e need to encourage people to look at motherhood as an autonomous social movement, much in the same way feminism has been framed in the past,鈥� says the book鈥檚 editor, 91亚色 women's studies Professor Andrea O鈥橰eilly in the聽Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

鈥淢others are becoming activists out of necessity,鈥� she says. 鈥淏eing a mother is still one of the most demanding jobs out there; we need to keep pushing for a shift in thinking so the roles and responsibilities of motherhood are given the value they deserve. Motherhood organizations, such as the ones profiled in this book, empower mothers to transform the society in which they live in order to improve their own lives.鈥�

Part of this challenge is tackling 鈥渋nvisimomibility鈥� 鈥� the chronic and pervasive undervaluing of mothers鈥� unpaid care giving. 鈥淭his leads to an inability to successfully fulfill one's care giving, civic and paid work responsibilities and leaves primary caregivers vulnerable to social and economic risk,鈥� says O鈥橰eilly.

Conversely, the term 鈥渕amazon鈥� was coined to describe mothers who refuse to become invisible. 鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about moms who aren鈥檛 afraid to engage in non-traditional behaviours 鈥� to be loud, angry and assertive,鈥� she says.

The 976-page book is divided into seven sections: Becoming a Mother; Maternal Identities; Maternal Advocacy; Maternal Activism; Violence, Militarism, War and Peace; Social Change and Social Justice, and Writing/Researching/Performing Motherhood. It features prominent organizations such as Moms Rising, Mocha Moms, and LGBTQ Parenting Network.

The volume also provides an overview of the history and ideological frameworks of the 21st century motherhood movement, discusses the challenges and possibilities of maternalism, and details the specific practices and strategies of maternal activism.

鈥淭he writings in this anthology show how the 21st century motherhood movement has opened the door to a mother-centered theory and politic of feminism,鈥� says O鈥橰eilly. 鈥淢otherhood is a crucial aspect of feminism that we need to continue to explore both through activism and research.鈥�

By Melissa Hughes, media relations officer. Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Pregnant with her third child, she was conducting a series of interviews聽as research for聽the play, , on loss and how it is transformed, when she lost her son Ethan. 鈥淚 was just struck by how I was immersed in this phenomena and living it at the same time,鈥� she says. I'm Still Here was co-created with 91亚色 nursing Professor Gail Mitchell and playwright Vrenia Ivonoffski.

Right: Christine Jonas-Simpson, holding the children's book she wrote, Ethan's Butterflies

Ethan was stillborn at 38 weeks 鈥� or, as Jonas-Simpson prefers to say, born still 鈥� causing a rent in the universe as she knew it. After the loud silence of her delivery, she remembers hearing a primal scream of agony, realizing some moments later it was coming from her.

Almost a decade later, Jonas-Simpson is about to premiere her third research-based documentary film, about how mothers and their families live with the loss of a child. The premiere will take place Sunday, May 15, from 1 to 3:30pm at the Fox Theatre, 2236 Queen St. E. in Toronto. Tickets are $25 per ticket with proceeds going to Bereaved Families of Ontario-Toronto. To buy tickets, call 416-440-0290 or e-mail info@bfotoronto.ca.

Enduring Love looks at the lives of four women, the agony of loss, the impact the death of their infant has had on them and their families and聽how they learned to live with their loss. It also traces聽the importance of recognizing their other children are also grieving, the continuing presence of their deceased child in their lives, the rituals they鈥檝e developed and how they not only endured but have been transformed by their loss. Funded by聽91亚色's聽Faculty of Health and the Health Leadership & Learning Network: Interprofessional Education Initiative Fund, the documentary answers the research question, what is the meaning of living and transforming with loss for mothers who experience the loss of their baby?

As one woman in the film says of her family, it was a 鈥渟eminal event in their lives鈥�; there was a before and an after. The women make the point that many fail to realize that losing their baby, whether at 24 weeks gestation or several weeks after delivery, is a profoundly felt loss that changes, not only them, but their husbands and their children, forever. One of the universally hard moments for these women was going home from the hospital without their baby. It feels so unnatural, says Jonas-Simpson.

It was the experience of losing her own son that guided Jonas-Simpson鈥檚 research toward providing a body of arts-based research for others who experienced perinatal loss. She had often used music in her nursing practice and research, and then began incorporating art, drama聽and film. 鈥淲ith grieving and loss it seemed appropriate to keep going with the arts.鈥� Although, she聽will write papers on her latest research, she believes presenting her findings with an art-based approach makes it more accessible and touches people in a way a research paper in a journal wouldn鈥檛. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way of showing the human experience, rather than just telling,鈥� she says.

Being a researcher, I looked at the literature to see what was out there. I was struck by how little there was out there in light of grieving and loss聽about mothers鈥� lived experiences. My graduate student, Jennifer Noseworthy, and I are conducting a comprehensive literature review and we鈥檝e only found a few qualitative studies focused on the human lived experience of perinatal loss.鈥� And that moved Jonas-Simpson to conduct research and create resources for others like her.

Enduring Love is her third film. Her first was , while her second, is a short made from footage shot for聽Enduring Love, which focuses on the surviving children. 鈥淭hese children have an incredible bond and relationship with the babies,鈥� their siblings who鈥檝e died. Jonas-Simpson recently gave a talk and showed Why Did Baby Die? at a聽Women's Health and Mental Wellbeing Speakers Series聽event at 91亚色.

Some of the children, as seen in Enduring Love, have drawn family portraits years later that have included their deceased siblings. 鈥淕rieving and loss isn鈥檛 always something we talk about openly, but it is experienced by many, if not all, of us,鈥� says Jonas-Simpson. Even after the physical death, the relationship continues. 鈥淚t鈥檚 still hidden. Perinatal loss is also disenfranchised in our society.鈥� To help grieving children with the loss of a baby sibling, she also wrote the children's book .

Jonas-Simpson started talking about her own experience of losing Ethan, born with vibrant red locks, and how her other two sons, now 11 and 13, have integrated him into their lives as a way to help others. 鈥淭he children integrate this loss very well,鈥� she says. One of her children even wrote a letter to Ethan as a school assignment, asking if there are dinosaurs in heaven and if it hurt to die. The teacher may have been uncomfortable, but Jonas-Simpson says it鈥檚 important to talk about and to understand the continuing relationship following death.

Next, she is hoping to do research on children age three to 18 who are grieving a loss of a baby sibling. Children, she says, are often forgotten about, but they too grieve. 鈥淚f we can be more open about grief and loss as a natural human experience and if we can begin in the schools with that,鈥� it could be really helpful for the children, she says. She would also like to explore the common and聽unique threads of grieving around the world.

For more information or to view or buy Jonas-Simpson鈥檚 films, visit the Faculty of Health鈥檚 Living and Transforming with Perinatal Loss website.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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When Christine Jonas-Simpson鈥檚 son Ethan was born, there was an eerie quiet in the delivery room, and then a piercing wail, wrote .

鈥淭he only cry I heard was my own,鈥� she said somberly.

Ethan was dead, 鈥渂orn still鈥� in the language of grieving parents; 鈥渟tillborn鈥� in the medical vernacular. The umbilical cord was constricted, essentially suffocating the baby in the womb, a condition impossible to detect with an ultrasound.

Jonas-Simpson, who was almost 38 weeks pregnant, knew her son was dead before she went into labour. When he was born, she held Ethan in her arms, stroking his shock of curly red hair. So did her husband.

The nurses were wonderfully supportive, even explaining to Ethan鈥檚 young siblings how his air tube was broken, something that could happen to an astronaut. The family was able to mourn on their terms.

(Jonas-Simpson, a professor of nursing at 91亚色 [Faculty of Health], published a children鈥檚 book, , and produced a series of research papers and documentaries on stillbirth, the latest of which, Enduring Love: Transforming Loss, will .)

[You can also watch the channel.]

Unlike Ethan, most babies born still are quickly 鈥渄isposed of鈥� without being held, named or given a funeral. In much of the world, reproduction is central to a woman鈥檚 purpose, so there is profound stigma, and no small measure of blame falls on the mother when childbirth fails to produce a living child.

Newly published data show there are more than 2.6 million stillbirths worldwide each year. The deaths remain largely uncounted, the mothers unsupported and preventive measures understudied.

It is an epidemic 鈥� one that claims more lives each year than HIV-AIDS and malaria combined 鈥� that quietly unfolds far from the public eye.

The Lancet, in its Thursday edition, has published that aim to shatter the silence by examining the staggering toll of stillbirth 鈥� emotional, physical and economic 鈥� and proposing practical solutions.

A stillbirth, as defined by the World Health Organization, is one in which a baby dies after reaching at least 28 weeks gestation and weighing at least 1,000 grams. In a country like Canada with advanced medical care, it is 22 weeks at 500 grams. (Loss of a fetus before that time is considered a miscarriage or, if the pregnancy is terminated, an abortion.)

There is a common belief that babies who die in utero were never meant to live. Stillbirths have been seen as a form of natural selection, bad luck, the result of witchcraft 鈥� lame 17th-century explanations for a lingering 21st-century scourge.

The other myth is that most stillbirths occur early in the pregnancy. In fact, the opposite is true: The longer the gestation, the higher the risk.

The vast majority of stillbirths are preventable.

In wealthy countries like Canada, where high-tech obstetrics are the norm, stillbirths are linked to smoking, obesity, advanced maternal age, and abnormalities in the placenta and umbilical cord.

J0nas-Simpson's research was also covered by in a story about the prevalence and impact of stillbirths among Inuit communities.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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The results show that a type of perfectionism in which individuals feel others expect them to be perfect, known as "socially-prescribed perfectionism," is associated with postpartum depression for first-time mothers.

The study is one of the first to look how perfectionism affects women's ability to adjust to life after childbirth. It involved 100 first-time mothers in Toronto, Canada, who filled out questionnaires to assess their level and type of perfectionism as well as feelings of depression.

The link between perfectionism and postpartum depression was strongest amongst those who try to deal with perfectionism by appearing as if they don't have a problem.

"What this suggests is that there might be some new mothers out there who might seem like everything is fine, in fact it might seem like everything is perfect," said, a professor of psychology [and Canada Research Chair] at 91亚色 in Canada. "[But] in fact it's just the opposite, that they're feeling quite badly but they're pretty good at covering it up."

This finding is particularly concerning, because it means friends and family might not realize their loved one is suffering from depression.

"This tendency to put on this front usually means that people don't tell other people when they're doing badly, so somebody might not know that a young women is having difficulty; they might have no clue whatsoever," Flett said. "And there's sadly some cases where the family says 'We thought everything was fine,' and the next thing we know, the person is no longer with us," he said.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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The other area of high risk for pregnancy is youth from Aboriginal communities in northern Ontario.

鈥淎s we read and summarized and synthesized research literature, and talked to youth workers, we realized there were these specific groups,鈥� says Connolly, director of the LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence & Conflict Resolution. 鈥淲ith that kind of feedback our research becomes focused and we can shift the lens to these three groups, for instance.鈥�

That is the value of knowledge mobilization 鈥撀爐he ability to see the gaps in the research and to more accurately zoom in where there is a need.

Right: Jennifer Connolly

The initial goal of Connolly鈥檚 KMb project, 鈥淭een Pregnancy and Teen Mothers: Meeting the Needs in 91亚色 Region鈥�, was to examine the prevalence of pregnant teens and teen mothers in 91亚色 Region and聽how their mental health needs were being met, 聽and it identify聽service gaps. The project also reviewed聽those girls receiving protective service intervention from 91亚色 Region Children鈥檚 Aid Society to evaluate their risk for pregnancy and initiated community-based opportunities for feedback and knowledge exchange. In addition, the project was designed to help determine how research on risk and resilience can inform clinical care, maximize positive outcomes and point the way for areas of further research.

鈥淚t led us to recognize that teen pregnancy was in the low to moderate range in Canada; about three to four per cent of live births are to women 19 and younger," says Connolly, a psychology professor in the Faculty of Health.聽It used to be higher. In the United States, it鈥檚 up around 18 per cent and in Italy it鈥檚 down around one per cent. "Teen pregnancy has certainly dropped in Canada, but when we look at the data, it ignores the fact that there are huge disparities in that information. In some communities the risk of teen pregnancy and motherhood is much higher.鈥�

For teen girls in the three highest risk categories, the rate of pregnancy soars to 30 to 50 per cent, and the teen pregnancy and motherhood outcomes in these groups聽are not good.

The research team 鈥撀燙onnolly, 91亚色 Professor Hala Tamim of the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in the Faculty of Health, psychology Professor Yvonne Bohr also of the Faculty of Health, Sandra Cunning of Kinark Child & Family Services and聽Bonita Majonis of 91亚色 Region Children鈥檚 Aid Society 鈥� realized the value of getting the results from research and knowledge synthesization out to community members聽who could make use of them.

One such community would be the youth workers and service agencies that work directly with these teens. This summer, Connolly, along with colleagues and students, will post plain language research summaries on 11 different topics聽using the聽Orion 03 platform, thanks to a Canadian Institutes of Health Research supplement grant. This is part of a research mobilization project headed by David Phipps, director of the Office of Research Services, to get clear, concise summaries of research out to communities.

For Connolly鈥檚 research, youth workers from Kinark Child & Family Services and the 91亚色 Region Children鈥檚 Aid Society will comment on the summaries and bring forth any questions.

The topics that will be tackled for the summaries will include homelessness and teen pregnancy and mothers; the risk and resilience of teen mothers; the risk and resilience of the mothers of teen mothers; teen pregnancy and teen motherhood in Canada; and the availability of services for teen mothers in 91亚色 Region.

It will allow Connolly and Phipps to take a closer look at how synthesized research can help those using the information in the community. It鈥檚 a way to evaluate how well knowledge mobilization works, Conolly聽says. She is hoping the project will point to specific areas where more research is needed. 鈥淭he kind of questions we will ask in future research will be shaped by the real world.鈥�

More information about聽Connolly's research is available on the .

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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鈥淥ver the last 25 years, the topic of motherhood has emerged as a central and significant topic of scholarly inquiry across a wide range of academic disciplines. A cursory review of motherhood research reveals that hundreds of scholarly articles have been published on almost every motherhood theme imaginable,鈥� says O鈥橰eilly, who coined the term "motherhood studies" to acknowledge and demarcate motherhood scholarship as a聽legitimate and distinctive discipline.

"Indeed, similar to the development of women studies as an academic field in the 1970s, motherhood studies, while explicitly interdisciplinary, has emerged an autonomous and independent scholarly discipline in the last decade," she says. "This intellectual tradition of maternal scholarship both made possible and created the need for an encylopedia on motherhood."

Founder and director of the newly formed (developed from the former Association for Research on Mothering at 91亚色), O'Reilly approached contributors and compiled articles by some 300 women scholars throughout the United States, Canada and beyond for the book.

The , the first scholarly reference devoted to the subject, covers a vast array of topics, including how the study of motherhood is almost completely ignored in archeology, mothers in popular culture, hip mamas, influential maternal theorists, the economics of motherhood, psychoanalysis, fertility, guilt, ecofeminism, refugees and the future of mothering. The encyclopedia touches on mothers, and what it means to be a mother in almost every country. It also looks at mothers in film, books, art and poetry, as well as in the Bible.

鈥淭he publication is for me a significant moment in motherhood scholarships as it confirms that motherhood has indeed arrived as a legitimate and distinct academic discipline and scholarly field." says O'Reilly. "As well, the encyclopedia, in bringing together for the first time over 700聽motherhood topics from A to Z, from aboriginal mothering to zines, and in providing a detailed summary and a bibliography for each topic, is an invaluable resource for anyone 鈥撀爏tudents, journalists, writers, researchers, community agencies 鈥撀爄n need of an overview of a particular motherhood topic and/or interested in doing further research on聽the subject matter.鈥�

Left: Andrea O'Reilly

The book聽delves into the anthropology of mothering, a discussion on advice literature for mothers, a chronology of motherhood and mother activists. It explores the concept of bad mothering, absentee mothers, alcoholism, ethics, HIV/AIDS, race, slavery, lesbian and bisexual mothers, breastfeeding and more. In addition, it examines terms, concepts, themes, debates, theories and texts of motherhood within history, geography and academia.

To O鈥橰eilly (BA Hons.聽'85, MA '87, PhD '96), the publication of the encyclopedia is like the coming of age of mothering research. The scholarship of motherhood has been legitimized and recognized, she says.

She introduces the Encyclopedia of Motherhood with a quote from author Adrienne Rich: 鈥淲e know more about the air we breathe, the seas we travel, than about the nature and meaning of motherhood.鈥� And that is exactly what O鈥橰eilly hopes the encyclopedia will change, that it will provide a glimpse into all things associated with and to mothering.聽The publication of the encyclopedia demarcates motherhood as an academic discipline and points to the future.

O鈥橰eilly is the author of and . She is also the editor of 14 collections.

For more information, visit the Web site.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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When Andrea O鈥橰eilly received a call from a publisher expressing interest in an encyclopedia on motherhood, she knew her field of expertise had finally arrived.

O鈥橰eilly, a professor in 91亚色鈥檚 School of Women鈥檚 Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and founder of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI), has dedicated her career to the study of motherhood and having it recognized as a legitimate topic of scholarly inquiry.

This month her Encyclopedia of Motherhood was released by Sage Press 鈥� a 1,500-page, three-volume collection featuring 700 entries on just about every aspect of the complex topic.

But it still remains a 鈥渟idebar鈥� subject, she added, even in women鈥檚 studies departments. 鈥淲hat isn鈥檛 really happening is motherhood is still not being taught in the mainstream courses, so it鈥檚 still being kind of ghettoized,鈥� she said.

An academic examination of motherhood didn鈥檛 exist when O鈥橰eilly worked to earn her PhD in English at 91亚色, she said, and that prompted her to design a course dedicated solely to the subject in 1990 鈥� the first of its kind in Canada.

The complete article is .

The Toronto Star also interviewed O'Reilly for an :

Until recently, motherhood didn鈥檛 qualify as a subject worthy of scholarly study. The collective voice of mothers is seldom heard in ivory towers or corridors of power, or in the discussion of policies that affect us all.

鈥淭he minute you鈥檙e a mother, you鈥檙e aware of the absence,鈥� says Andrea O鈥橰eilly, 49, a professor in 91亚色鈥檚 School of Women鈥檚 Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. 鈥淢otherhood is the blind spot.鈥� She wanted to change that.

In 1991, O鈥橰eilly developed Canada鈥檚 first university course on motherhood, at 91亚色. The Internet was in its infancy. Supermom was taking flight. Women were thrashing around with work and children, resigned to exhaustion following 鈥渢he second shift.鈥�

Feminist writers and scholars were exploring motherhood, but often in isolation.

O鈥橰eilly, who has three children, tapped into a hunger for research, debate and a grassroots community, along with the desire to reconcile feminism with mothering when the two were often at odds.

She held a conference, and was shocked when it attracted 150 researchers and academics from around the world. In 1998, she founded the Association for Research on Mothering, the first of its kind. It took on a life of its own.

Its journal, exploring everything from poverty to mothers in pop culture, popped up on university reading lists across the country and abroad.

Then came a publication division. Demeter Press has released 10 books, including one on mommy blogging and another called Mother Knows Best: Talking Back to the Experts, which challenged conventional parenting advice.

Earlier this year, mounting debt forced ARM, which had space at 91亚色 but never received operating funding, to close its doors. The university acknowledged the association鈥檚 renown and 550 paying members but would not provide funds.

This month, following a groundswell of support from researchers in 15 countries, including Australia, Brazil and Spain, the association was reborn as an independent organization. The new will be funded through memberships, sales of its publications, grants and fundraising, including a literary fundraiser in Toronto on May 21.

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Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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