Feminism and mothering: A Kleinian perspective

There has been a tendency within recent feminist theory to celebrate the early mother-daughter relationship as a basis of women's unity as a sex. In this respect the work of the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein is relevant to feminism in that it draws attention to the hatred as well as love that inheres in the early mothering relation, and explains the prevalent neglect of the contradictory and ambivalent aspects of mothering—a neglect that contributes to its idealization.     

PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FAMILIES DISPUTING CUSTODY

This article reports data on allegations of domestic violence in two samples of high-conflict families in child custody disputes. It delineates five basic types of interparental violence and corresponding patterns in parent-child relationships. The findings should be viewed as preliminary exploratory hypotheses, which, if confirmed in future research, suggest that differential assessment of domestic families is important when helping divorcing parents make custody and visitation plans.     

Intergroup fairness biases: Is ours the fairer sex?

These studies were designed to assess ethnocentrism and stereotypes as possible mediators of intergroup fairness biases. In Study 1, subjects wrote fair and unfair behaviors about their own sex (the ingroup) and the opposite sex (the outgroup). More fair and fewer unfair behaviors were written about the ingroup than about the outgroup, supporting the ethnocentric hypothesis. In Study 2, subjects rated the fairness and frequency of random samples of each item type. Half the subjects rated these items as they were originally written, and half rated them with the gender of the actor reversed. Ethnocentrism was evident in ratings of ingroup actors as more fair than outgroup actors when both performed fair behaviors, but this bias was reversed in favor of outgroup actors for ratings of unfair behaviors. In addition, the items written about women were rated more fair than those written about men, and men rated the reversed gender items less fair and less frequent than did women, supporting the influence of gender stereotypes in intergroup fairness biases.     

For better or for worse? The dilemmas of unmarried motherhood in mid-twentieth-century popular British film and fiction

This article investigates representations of unmarried motherhood in the late 1940s and early 1950s through readings of popular British film and fiction. These sources are used to illustrate contradictions and conflicts in the meanings afforded to unmarried motherhood and, in turn, to highlight how the unmarried mother was used as a motif for exploring post-war normative boundaries around marriage, motherhood, and female sexuality. The article draws upon Raymond Williams's idea of a 'structure of feeling' to make connections between these representations and issues and debates about the role and status of women and mothers more generally in post-war Britain.