A Woman's Work: Reclaiming the Radical History of Mothering - Elinor Cleghorn - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Elinor Cleghorn

GENRE: History, Feminism.

PUBLICATION DATE: March 17, 2026

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell; Not a book about ‘mothering’ but about ‘motherhood’. Informative, but slightly dense at times. Recommended to those more interested into seeing how perceptions about pregnancy, midwifery and the like have evolved through the ages.

The tagline says this book is about ‘Reclaiming the Radical History of Mothering’. Dictionaries define ‘mothering’ as the activity of caring for and protecting children or other people. So I picked this book up assuming it to be a depiction of the evolving perceptions of childcare over the centuries. However, the book focuses more on motherhood i.e. the literal act of becoming a mother. So it includes pregnancy, labour, and everything else connected to reproduction post-conception. 

It does fair justice to these topics, beginning from mothers in mythology, and moving steadily down the centuries covering religious beliefs, social expectations from women about motherhood, patriarchal dominance, midwifery, postpartum psychosis, and so on. It also includes biographies of some pioneering women. A major part of the content is historical.

As the book went in a different direction, I thought that once it was done with the topics related to conception, pregnancy, and postpartum experiences, it would move to ‘mothering’. But no, mothering just doesn’t come up. I feel… cheated, I guess?

Those who want to read a book on the changing perception of women from being reproductive vessels to being individuals with rights (Assuming that we have more rights these days!😑) will find this an informative book, though a bit dry and dense at times. But ‘mothering’ is what was promised by the tagline and what I picked the book up for, and the book didn’t give me that. 🤷🏻‍♀️