Strategies of Resistance: `Bad' Mothers Dispute the Evidence

Abstract

Previous research has focused on the ways in which women who are clients of welfare agencies are constructed by professional discourse. In contrast, the present study looks at the ways in which women who are designated as `problem mothers' take issue with these professional definitions. A discourse-analytic approach is adopted in the analysis of the strategies of accommodation and resistance employed by such women. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which women seen as `bad mothers' position themselves within existing frameworks of `good mothering' and professional practice in order to establish the right to be heard. The analysis highlights some of the strategies through which such women can attempt to construct a positive maternal identity whilst negotiating for effective help from welfare agencies. Some of the implications of the enmeshment of resistance in appeals to common values are discussed, together with implications for professional practice.