In this article, we explore two partially overlapping set of ideas on appropriate mothering that shape the experiences of contemporary Polish mothers. One is rooted in Catholicism, while the other aligns with the ideology of intensive mothering. In the first part of the article, we reconstruct the gendered concept of the ‘good mother’ foregrounded by these ideologies. In the second part, based on analysis of in-depth interviews with 46 mothers and observational data from a club for Catholic mothers with young children, we examine how the coexistence of various ideological constructions of motherhood in contemporary Polish society shapes mothering as an everyday practice and enables mothers to negotiate the cultural demands associated with these constructions. We analyse how Catholic ideals of motherhood and the ideology of intensive mothering become entangled yet are sometimes reflectively separated in maternal practices. This dynamic, we argue, both reinforces gender-traditional norms and creates space for the resignification of various gendered maternal obligations.
AinsworthMDBellSM (1970) Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Development41(1): 49–67.
2.
ArendellT (2000) Conceiving and investigating motherhood: The decade’s scholarship. Journal of Marriage and the Family62(4): 1192–1207.
3.
BeckfordJA (2003) Social Theory and Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4.
BobelC (2004) When good enough isn’t: Mother blame in The Continuum Concept. Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering6(2): 68–78.
5.
BowlbyJ (1951) Maternal care and mental health. Bulletin of the World Health Organization3: 355–533.
6.
BowlbyJ (1982) Attachment and loss: Retrospect and prospect. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry52(4): 664–678.
7.
BrownS (2014) Intensive mothering as an adaptive response to our cultural environment. In: EnnisLR (ed.) Intensive Mothering: The Cultural Contradictions of Modern Motherhood. Bradford: Demeter Press, pp. 27–46.
8.
BuddsK (2021) Validating social support and prioritizing maternal wellbeing: Beyond intensive mothering and maternal responsibility. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B376(1827): 20200029.
9.
BudrowskaB (2000) Macierzyństwo jako punkt zwrotny w życiu kobiety. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Funna.
10.
ButlerJ (1993) Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. New York: Routledge.
11.
ButlerJ (1997) The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
12.
ChongKH (2006) Negotiating patriarchy: South Korean Evangelical women and the politics of gender. Gender & Society20: 697–724.
13.
ChristopherK (2012) Extensive mothering: Employed mothers’ constructions of the good mother. Gender and Society26(1): 73–96.
14.
CsányiGKerényiS (2021) A Semi-Peripheral Myth of the ‘Good Mother’: The History of Motherly Love in Hungary from a Global Perspective. In: MayerCHVanderheidenE (eds) International Handbook of Love. Cham: Springer, pp. 317–332.
15.
DallyA (1982) Inventing Motherhood: The Consequences of an Ideal. London: Burnett Books.
16.
DowMD (2016) Integrated motherhood: Beyond hegemonic ideologies of motherhood. Journal of Marriage and Family78(1): 180–196.
17.
DuarteFGonçalvesM (2007) Negotiating motherhood: A dialogical approach. International Journal for Dialogical Science2: 249–275.
18.
Dzwonkowska-GodulaK (2015) Tradycyjnie czy nowocześnie? Wzory macierzyństwa i ojcostwa w Polsce. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego.
19.
ElliotSPowellRBrentonJ (2015) Being a good mom: Low-income, Black single mothers negotiate intensive mothering. Journal of Family Issues36(3): 351–370.
20.
EyerDE (1994) Mother-infant bonding: A scientific fiction. Human Nature5(1): 69–94.
21.
ForbesLKDonovanCLamarMR (2020) Differences in intensive parenting attitudes and gender norms among U.S. mothers. The Family Journal28(1): 63–71.
FraserN (2016) Contradictions of capital and care. New Left Review100: 99–117.
24.
GallagherSK (2003) Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Pres.
25.
GareyAI (1995) Constructing motherhood on the night shift: ‘Working mothers’ as ‘stay-at-home moms’. Qualitative Sociology18(4): 415–437.
26.
GawronA (2019) Writing as revision: Literatura, feminizm, macierzyństwo. In: DesperakIHyżyEKuźmaIB, et al. (eds) Kobiety wobec dominacji i opresji. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, pp. 105–120.
27.
GlennEN (1994) Social constructions of mothering: A thematic overview. In: GlennENChangGForceyLR (eds) Mothering: Ideology, Experience, and Agency. New York: Routledge, pp. 1–29.
28.
GriffithMR (1997) Gods Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
29.
GuignardFP (2019) Religions and mothers. In: O’Brien HallsteinLO’ReillyAVandenbeld GilesM (eds) The Routledge Companion to Motherhood. New York: Routledge, pp. 156–164.
30.
HallPC (1998) Mothering mythology in the late twentieth century. Canadian Woman Studies18(2–3): 59–63.
31.
HaysS (1996) The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press.
32.
HryciukRKorolczukE (2012) Wstęp: Pożegnanie z Matką Polką?. In: HryciukRKorolczukE (eds) Pożegnanie z Matką Polką? Dyskursy, praktyki i reprezentacje macierzyństwa we współczesnej Polsce. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, pp. 7–24.
KrotofilJWójciakDMętelD (2023) The Virgin Mary in the narratives of contemporary Catholic and Muslim mothers in Poland. Lud107: 202–222.
38.
LankesJ (2022) Negotiating ‘impossible’ ideals: Latent classes of intensive mothering in the United States. Gender and Society36(5): 677–703.
39.
McIntoshE (2021) Gender in religion, religion in society. In: StarkeyCTomalinE (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Gender and Society. New York: Routledge, pp. 19–36.
40.
MahmoodS (2005) Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
41.
MillerT (2007) ‘Is this what motherhood is all about?’: Weaving experiences and discourse through transition to first-time motherhood. Gender and Society21(3): 337–358.
42.
Miller-McLemoreBJ (2002) ‘Pondering all these things’. Mary and motherhood. In: GaventaBRRigbyCL (eds) Blessed One: Protestant Perspectives on Mary. Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, pp. 97–114.
43.
MorganLMRobertsEFS (2012) Reproductive governance in Latin America. Anthropology and Medicine19(2): 241–254.
44.
PargamentKI (1997) The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice. New York: Guilford Press.
45.
PedersenS (2015) The good, the bad and the ‘good enough’ mother on the UK parenting forum Mumsnet. Women’s Studies International Forum59: 32–38.
46.
PeskowitzM (2005) The Truth behind the Mommy Wars: Who Decides What Makes a Good Mother?. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
47.
PustułkaPBulerM (2020) (Wyboista) droga do macierzyństwa. Tranzycje do macierzyństwa w perspektywie trzech pokoleń Polek oraz ekspertek i ekspertów. Warszawa: SWPS Uniwersytet Humanistycznospołeczny.
48.
RadzikZ (2015) Kościół Kobiet. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej.
49.
RandlesJ (2021) ‘Willing to do anything for my kids’: Inventive mothering, diapers, and the inequalities of carework. American Sociological Review86(1): 35–59.
50.
RichA (1976) Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New York: Norton.
51.
RismanBJ (2004) Gender as a social structure: Theory wrestling with activism. Gender & Society18: 429–450.
52.
ROPS (2015) Społeczna rola matki – wyzwania współczesnego macierzyństwa. Raport z badania 2015. Katowice: Regionalny Ośrodek Polityki Społecznej Województwa Śląskiego.
53.
SarnowskaJPustulkaP (2025) Parenting expertise during transitions-to-motherhood. Exploring transformations in knowledge regimes in Poland. Sociological Research Online30(1): 260–277.
54.
SauerlandD (2015) Ideologies, institutions, and the new institutionalism. In: WrightJD (ed.) International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, vol. 11, 2nd edn. Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 561–572.
55.
SikorskaM (2009) Nowy ojciec, nowa matka. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne.
56.
StoneA (2012) Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and Maternal Subjectivity. New York: Routledge.
57.
SusenS (2014) Reflections on Ideology: Lessons from Pierre Bourdieu and Luc Boltanski. Thesis Eleven124(1): 90–113.
58.
SutherlandJ-A (2010) Mothering, guilt and shame. Sociology Compass4(5): 310–321.
59.
SzőkeAKovaiC (2022) State intervention and parenting in CEE and beyond. Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics. 8(3): 1–1.
60.
SzwedA (2015) Ta druga. Obraz kobiety w nauczaniu Kościoła rzymskokatolickiego i w świadomości księży. Kraków: NOMOS.
61.
TitkowA (2007) Tożsamość polskich kobiet. Ciągłość, zmiana, konteksty. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo IFiS PAN.
62.
WaldenSW (2018) Professional instincts: Professional mothering rhetoric and the revision of maternal labor. Women’s Studies in Communication41(3): 205–223.
63.
WallsJKHelmsHMGrzywaczJG (2016) Intensive mothering beliefs among full-time employed mothers of infants. Journal of Family Issues37(2): 245–269.
