Project team: | Prof. Dr. Marion Müller (in cooperation with Dr. Nicole Zillien and Julia Gerstewitz, M.A., University of Trier) |
Funding: | DFG |
Duration: | 1.12.2016— 30.11.2019 |
The focus of the project is to examine the emergence and consolidation of a gendered division of labour and care at the transition to parenthood. We empirically analyse the importance of antenatal classes and online pregnancy forums for this process of retraditionalization. While there is empirical evidence for retraditionalization after first childbirth, its causes are still unexplored. In contrast to other studies focusing this subject, our analysis is based on the assumption that the roots of retraditionalization are to be found prior to birth. We expect antenatal classes, as main institutions in German prenatal health policy, yet widely uncharted, to play a key role here. An ethnographic research in antenatal classes, traditionally given by midwives, will be the core of our project, focusing the question whether the imparted knowledge implies specific normative expectations placed on the mothers-to-be.
Detailed project description (in German only)
