Media Work, Mothers and Motherhood: Negotiating the International Audio-Visual Industry

by Susan Liddy (Editor), Anne O'Brien (Editor)

Overview

This interdisciplinary and international volume offers an innovative and critical exploration of the impact of motherhood on the engagement of women in media and creative industries across the globe. Diverse contributions critically engage with the intersections and overlap between the social categories of worker and mother, and the work of media production and maternal caregiving.

Conflicting ideas about, and expectations of, mothers are untangled in the context of the working world of radio, film, television and creative media industries. The book teases out commonalities between experiences that are evident across a number of countries, from Hollywood to Bollywood, as well as examining the differences between class, religion, maternal status and cultural frameworks that surround working mothers in various nation states. It also offers some possibilities for ways forward that can improve the lives of women workers who are also mothers.

A timely and valuable contribution to international debates on equality, mothers and motherhood in audiovisual industries, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of media, communication, cultural studies and gender, programmes engaged with work inequalities and motherhood studies, and activists, funders, policymakers and practitioners.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367536015
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/21/2021
Series:	Routledge Studies in Media and Cultural Industries
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Susan Liddy lectures in the Department of Media and Communication Studies in MIC, University of Limerick. Her recent work includes: Women in the Irish Film Industry: Stories and Storytellers (ed.) (2020) and Women in the International Film Industry: Policy Practice and Power (ed.) (2020). She is Chair of Women in Film and Television Ireland, a board member of Women in Film and Television International, the Writers Guild of Ireland and Raising Films Ireland. She is founder and co-director of Catalyst International Film Festival, Limerick.

Anne O' Brien is Associate Professor with the Department of Media Studies at Maynooth University. She has published on the representation of women in radio and television, on women workers in creative industries and examined why women leave careers in screen production. Her most recent book explores Women, Inequality and Media Work (2019).

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables ix

1 Motherhood and media work: an introduction Susan Liddy Anne O'Brien 1

Part I Who cares in screen production? 11

2 Inequality, invisibility and inflexibility: mothers and carers navigating careers in the Australian screen industries Sheree K. Gregory Deb Verhoeven 13

3 Managing Wollstonecraft's Dilemma: matriarchs in the Nigerian broadcast news media and the politics of childcare Ganiyat Tijani-Adenle 30

4 Representing and experiencing motherhood on- and off-screen in Swedish film Maria Jansson Louise Wallenberg 45

5 The mother of a famous child: the media representation of Shirley Temple's 'Mother' in Hollywood, 1934-1940 Tsz Lam Ngai 63

Part 2 Intersectionality and media mothers 77

6 Negotiating motherhood in the Colombian audiovisual industry: a matter of capital Alejandra Castano-Echeverri Andrés Correa-González 79

7 The future of Muslim women behind the scenes of the Malaysian TV industry Nur Kareelawati Abd Karim 95

8 British television production and women without children: exclusionary practice in the turn to care Rowan Aust 111

Part 3 Stigma, subjectivity and celebrity 127

9 The operation of maternal stigma in the creative and cultural industries Tamsyn Dent 129

10 Mothers' subjective experiences of negotiating caring responsibilities with work in the Scottish film and television industries Susan Berridge 145

11 Bollywood mothers: work-life imbalance Viraj Suparsad 160

Part 4 Solutions for better futures 177

12 The gendered practice of the TV opt-out Perelandra Beedles 179

13 Negotiating motherhood: the search for solutions Susan Liddy Anne O'Brien 197

List of contributors 213

Index 217