Autonomy for Mothers? Relational Theory and Parenting Apart

This article explores the tensions between autonomy and expectations of mother-caregivers, in the context of normative trends
in post-separation parenting law. Going back to first principles of feminism, the article asks what scope for autonomy there
is for modern mothers in the face of socio-legal norms that prioritise shared parenting. The very relationship between mother-caregivers
and children illustrates the important connection between relationships and autonomy: the caregiving that mothers provide
enables children to become autonomous persons yet, at the same time, this caregiving relationship constrains maternal autonomy.
In the current context that encourages shared parenting, the potential for maternal autonomy may be even more compromised—a
deep irony in a supposedly post-feminist era. A responsible mother is now expected to nurture a child’s relationship with
the father, unless he is proven to be harmful. The ability of women to be at all autonomous from the fathers of their children
in the face of this normative expectation is dubious, even when the adults live separately. Moreover, the dominance of the
heterosexual and patriarchal family—always a challenge for women’s autonomy—is reproduced in this imposition of equal parenting
in the name of children’s rights. This article uses a contextual approach to relational autonomy to point to an approach that
might challenge the normative climate of shared parenting.