Media coverage of Mother’s Day tends to be surprisingly uniform, regardless of the source or medium that one chooses. This year has been no different: the Globe and Mail, National Post, New York Times, Washington Post, and various major news stations have all devoted considerable print and air time to the celebration. For the most part, coverage of Mother’s Day is rather single-minded: how is it that women in today’s day and age balance work and parenting.
Tensions of Working Outside the Home
Women who both work outside the home and also have small children are pulled in many directions when it comes to the idea of motherhood. The mainstream media only adds to the pressures that working mothers face with their specific and particular images of what motherhood is. From subtle baking product commercials to full-on experts decrying women who work outside the home, the battle lines have been drawn, according to the media, for the motherhood debate.
Politicizing Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day, then, becomes an excuse for the media outlets, regardless of their supposed political or social leaning, to trot out discussions on how working mothers in today’s day and age ‘truly’ feel. While it is important to have these conversations in the public sphere, it is somewhat troubling that we spend so much time debating the merits of mothers in the workplace, and so little time and money trying to fix the problems that exist.
The mainstream media plays an important role in mediating any debate on motherhood, and the fact that Mother’s Day is chosen by these organizations to present ideas and discussions is very telling. Instead of choosing to celebrate moms and motherhood on this day, so many media outlets choose to tell the story of motherhood in a particular way, one in which millions of women worldwide are treated with far less respect than they deserve.
Role of Media in Debate
To acknowledge that there is tension between being a ‘good’ mom, and a working woman is understandable, but to exacerbate this tension by providing portrait after portrait of disrupted family lives due to this reality is not excusable. The mainstream media needs to be responsible for their societal impact on the motherhood debate, and this responsibility is never clearer than on that one day a year when we are supposed to honor the women who raise us.
Mother’s Day is very different than Father’s Day in this regard- for the latter, we rarely see men asked how their parenting responsibilities are affecting their ability to be good dads to their kids. Instead, this holiday elicits polls on what dad wants most for Father’s Day, and sentimental stories on how certain father’s affected their children’s lives.
Kate Butler - From the gendered representation of women in politics, to the effects of media viewing on small children, Kate Butler has written and ...
