Essential Breakthroughs: Conversations About Men, Mothers &

Mothers, daughters and mothering have been a longtime focus of research and study in various academic disciplines, and common topics of interest in mainstream press and popular culture, yet the realities and experiences of sons, men, mothers and mothering have been less explored. The purpose of this collection is to explore the meanings and effects of the relationships among men, mothers and mothering from the perspective of sons, men, mothers, and parents across an array of identities, interests, perspectives, and feminisms, and fatherhood and maternal theory inform our investigation. In her article “Taking Off the Maternal Lens” (2010), Doucet expands upon her earlier theorizing and has “come to believe that studying fathers’ caregiving through the lens of men and mothering ultimately limits our understandings of fathers’ caring.” Although, as Doucet suggests, “fathers are reconfiguring fathering and masculinities and what it means to be a man in the twenty-first century,” the stance of this collection affirms there is still substantial insight to be gained from the use of a maternal lens with respect to fathering and masculinities, and to sons, men, mothers, and mothering more generally.