Essentially a Mother

A Feminist Approach to the Law of Pregnancy and Motherhood

Jennifer Hendricks

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780520388253
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520388277
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Family Law
• Index: Law

Essentially a Mother argues that the law of pregnancy and motherhood has been overrun by sexist ideology. Courts have held that a pregnant woman’s nine months of gestation hardly count in her claim to parent the child she bears and that a man’s brief moment of ejaculation matters more than a woman’s labor. Armed with such dubious arguments, courts have stripped women of the right to abortion, treated surrogate mothers as mere vessels, and handed biological fathers—even those who became fathers through rape—automatic rights over women and their children. In this incisive and groundbreaking book, Jennifer Hendricks argues that feminists must overthrow the skewed value system that subordinates women, devalues caregiving, and denies too many the right to parent.

Table of contents

• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part One: Sex Difference and Accommodation
• Part Two: The Collapse of Caretaking
• Part Three: A Feminist Approach
• Conclusion
• Timeline of Cases
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index