Motherhoods, Markets and Consumption ─ The Making of Mothers in Contemporary Western Cultures

It takes more than a baby to make a mother, and mothers make more than babies. This edited collection brings together a range of international studies to explore the role of markets and consumption in the making of mothers.

Combining personal accounts from many mothers with different theoretical perspectives and organized into four main sections, this book:

• Considers how advertising, media and consumer culture contribute to myths and stereotypes concerning good and bad mothers
• Explores how particular consumer choices are bound up with women’s identities as mothers
• Highlights how mothers deal with social expectations, marketing practices and family taste in feeding their families
• Explores the role of consumption for women entering different phases of their mothering lives: such as pregnancy, early motherhood, and the "empty nest"
• Considers how women’s identities as mothers do not exist in isolation, but are shaped by their interactions with others, both within and beyond the immediate family

Motherhoods, Markets and Consumption examines how marketing and consumer culture constructs particular images of what mothers are, what they should care about and how they should behave; exploring how women's use of consumer goods and services shapes how they mother as well as how they are seen and judged by others.

Stephanie O’Donohoe is Professor of Advertising and Consumer Culture at the University of Edinburgh, UK

Margaret Hogg is Fulgoni Professor of Consumer Behaviour and Marketing at Lancaster University Management School , UK

Pauline Maclaran is Professor of Marketing and Consumer Research at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

Lydia Martens is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Keele University, UK

Lorna Stevens is Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of the West of Scotland, UK