Critical Perspectives on Wives

Roles, Representations, Identities, Work Edited by Dr. Lynn O’Brien Hallstein and Dr. Rebecca Bromwich This interdisciplinary volume opens an innovative space for critical discussion, and production of new imaginaries within, feminist scholarship, analysis and feminist politics, about what is and has been meant by, involved in, required of, and what it means to be, a “wife.” Contributions within this volume together critically explore and tease out, intersections, overlaps, and distinctions between the social categories of wife and mother, and the link, and separate, labours of wife-work and maternal caregiving labour. This volume brings together diverse critical perspectives through creative contributions, personal narratives, and scholarly works. Chapters discuss critical theorizing about roles, representations, identities, and work associated with being a “wife.” Contents: • Lynn O’Brien Hallstein and Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich, “Introduction”; • Contributor Biographies; Part l: Wife-Work and Mother-Work Today; • Natalie McKnight,” No Time Off for Good Behavior: The Persistence of Victorian Expectations of Wives.”; • Leanne Letourneau, “Invisible Wives: Analyzing the Consequence of ‘Sameness’”; • Jane Marcellus, “’Office Wife,’ ‘Two-job Wife,’ ‘Work Wife’: The Marriage Metaphor in Popular Culture Representation of Women’s Paid Labour.”; • Robyn Pepin, “Mediators’ Perspectives on the Ontario Family Mediation Process and its Potential Impact on Abused Women and Children’s Education.”; • Hinda Mandell, “Birthing New Identities through Wifework and Mothering: The Lineage of Family Narrative in Toddlerhood.”; Part ll – The Work of Wives in Different Cultural Contexts; • Ariadne Gonzales, “Mjueres Trabajadoras” ; • Suzanne Kamata, “Behind the Screens: Mary Elkinton Nitobe and Mary Dardis Noguchi.” ; • Ester Botta Sompare, “Becoming a Good wife in a Guinean Pastoral Society.” ; Part lll –Resisting and Changing Wives’ Roles and Lives ; • Rebecca Bromwich and Beverley Smith, “Espousing Care: Counting ‘Wife – Work’: Lessons from Canadian Family Law.”; • Holly Willson Holladay, “What is a Wife? Partnering and Mothering in the ABC Family’s The Fosters.”; • Jo Scott-Coe, “Kathy Leissner Whitman and the Mad Men Milieu.” ; • Elisavietta Ritchie, “Aspects of Wifehood” (poem)