This presentation seeks to understand some of the white American cultural and social-rhetorical structures that inform and affect the ways mothers who choose to leave marriage are constructed, and to inspect some of the lived experiences of women who have made this choice. Within the context of a motherhood narrative in which “good” mothers sacrifice the whole self to protect and nurture their children, the “worst” mother is easily marked by her choice to disrupt the nuclear family structure. In addition, the research concerning divorce and children has been dominated by a one scholar — Judith Wallerstein — whose singular longitudinal and decidedly pessimistic study has informed family law policy and ultimately our larger social agreements about the effect of divorce on children. To put Wallerstein’s research into perspective, a series of biography-style interviews was conducted to uncover how some mothers’ experiences contrast with the assumed value of the intact family. Additionally, these interviews reveal how some mothers who chose to end marriage are subtly ostracized by their communities. Finally, the interview data illustrates how these mothers continue to internalize the perceived failure and negative stigma that is attached to divorce.
About the presenterMadeline Yonker
Madeline Dahlke Yonker is an assistant professor of Composition and Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania, where she teaches primarily in the Professional Writing major. Her research and teaching interests include technorhetoric, professional writing and tech comm, digital culture, networks, narrativity, and composition-as-social. She is also a certified CrossFit Level 1 coach at CrossFit York and a competitive Olympic weightlifter.