This volume investigates the intersections of welfare, gender and mothering work in the current political climate. It explores austerity and the policies of neo-liberal governments that work to deprive some mothers of their welfare. This volume also considers how motherhood is socially constructed in various social locations and places around the world. Last, it examines different ways of thinking about mothering and what changes to laws and policies are required to assist all who are mothering and provide better support to their families.

Karine Levasseur is Associate Professor, Department of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, and a stepmother. Her research interests include state-civil society relations, accountability and governance. She is author of “In the Name of Charity: Institutional support and resistance for redefining the meaning of charity in Canada”, which won the J.E. Hodgetts Award for best article (English) published in Canadian Public Administration in 2012.

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Stephanie Paterson is a professor of political science at Concordia University. She specializes in feminist and critical policy studies. Her work centres on the effects produced when states take up and deploy feminist knowledge and expertise, and includes substantive expertise in feminist governance, gender mainstreaming, and the politics of reproduction.

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Lorna A. Turnbull is an activist mother of three, and a professor and former Dean in the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba. Her research is focused on the work of care, its importance to carers and those who depend on the care, and how legal frameworks support or fail these important relationships through the lens of Canada’s constitutional guarantees and international obligations. She is the author of Double Jeopardy: Motherwork and the Law (2001).

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