Motherhood in English feminist dictionaries

Motherhood and reproduction have always been key concepts at the core of feminist discourse, which has ranged from the right to abortion, to the distinction between biological and social motherhood, to the rhetoric of foremothers as inspiring examples for today’s feminist activists. Nevertheless, one aspect which still has not been examined is the representation of the various shades of motherhood in feminist dictionaries, or contradictionaries, which, apart from exposing gender bias in English mainstream lexicography, are important collections of jargon which contribute to the formation of a common feminist (linguistic) identity. Thus, this paper analyses new (sometimes made-up) headwords, alternative spellings, supplementary meanings, and contextual details in examples of feminist lexicography dating between the 1970s and the 2000s, in order to give more insight into the different nuances of the idea of maternity (as a significant, but also quite difficult period in a woman’s life, and as a metaphor, a myth, or an institution) from a feminist perspective. The ultimate aim is not only to show the limitations of mainstream dictionaries in tackling this theme, but also, and even more importantly, to reveal different ways of conceptualising motherhood which are often misrepresented, or altogether neglected, in the androcentric, sexist tradition of this field.