Round Table «Motherhood: Gender Analysis»

November 05, 2015

The annual round table «Motherhood: Gender Analysis» was held in Ostroh Academy in November, 5. Organizers were the Department of Gender Studies and the Department of Cultural Studies and Philosophy of the National University of Ostroh Academy.

During the opening of the round table dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor Dmytro Shevchuk stressed the relevance of the theme as the phenomenon of motherhood is filled with social and political meanings. Candidate of Sciences (Philosophy), Head of the Department of Gender Studies, Assistant Professor of the Department of Cultural Studies and Philosophy Maria Petrushkevych stressed out that although the theme covers many aspects it is actually quite narrowly represented in a scientific field. This issue is being explored in medicine, psychology, religious studies, but philosophical, cultural, literary understanding of motherhood is another matter.

The 4th year student of the specialty «Culture» Natalia Michuda told about the Soviet experience of motherhood. N. Michuda said that

«according to research in the USSR one child in a family was considered the norm, because a woman worked along with her husband and on the fifth day of childbirth she had to go to work».

Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Assistant Professor of the Department of the English Language and Literature Lidia Zelinska presented a theme «Duty and „desire“: the problem of implementation of motherhood by female characters in European drama in late 19th — early 20th centuries». In the examples of Chekhov’s drama, researcher showed that in the works of these periods status of mother is not identical to the status of wife.

The participants discussed the issue of consumerism and social maternity, motherhood and responsibility, motherhood construction in time. In addition, there were lively discussions about the role of women in society, the role of women and men in the upbringing of children, male and female responsibilities of clear criteria for maternity.