Fatherhood is in flux in many contemporary societies today. Over the last 75 years, women have entered the paid workforce en masse. Now that mothers are contributing income to their families, fathers’ role in childcare has increased, too. According to recent time diary studies, the average daily minutes that men spent in childcare have tripled since the 1960s.
Matrescence is the profound psychological, physical, emotional, and social transformation women undergo when becoming mothers—comparable to adolescence in scope. Despite being one of the most significant developmental transitions in adult life, it remains largely unnamed, unsupported, and misunderstood in professional environments.
In my work as a life consultant, I often speak with professional women who have recently married and become mothers. Particularly in the early years of raising children, it’s not unusual for these highly educated, successful women to find themselves challenged by the new burdens of domesticity.
This webinar represents a powerful testimony of individual and organizational transformation. Marleny Gil and Lorena Saavedra not only shared their stories of personal overcoming in the face of structural, cultural and social barriers, but they articulated a clear vision of how the mining industry can and should evolve.
The conflation of selfhood with professional identity and self-worth with productivity and ambition is, of course, why stay-at-home motherhood is regarded as such a lowly vocation. At home, there’s no remuneration for services rendered or ladder to climb, nor is there much external validation. To be a stay-at-home mother is, therefore, to step outside of the productivity paradigm entirely, “to [fall] off the edge of the working world,” in the words of Mary Harrington.
The psychological fragility associated with the perinatal period is a fact of both individual and collective life. The short-term consequences of inadequate care for these frailties have repercussions for society as a whole. In short, it’s high time to make the mental health of expectant and new mothers an urgent public health priority.
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