Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Using motherhood as a lens, papers in this symposium explore all aspects of mothering and archaeology: the archaeology of historic mothers and motherhood, the actions of “mothering” in archaeology, and the second shift often pressed on women. Some papers present intersectional research on diverse historic ideologies and practices of motherhood and mothering that varied among classes, races and ethnic groups. Some papers discuss how female identifying archaeologists often take on a disproportionate amount of labor, particularly emotional labor, both in their careers and in the home. The goal of this session is to bring research on historic motherhood and mothering, and “those conversations” we have amongst ourselves to the larger Society and have an honest reckoning with how to create a more equitable discipline. Some papers address how becoming a mother affected women's archaeological practices and careers, or discuss why women are doing most of the deeply engaged community archaeology.