Toward an Affirmative Dutch Emancipation Debate. Moving Beyond the Question 'Can Women Have It All?' Through a Relational Perspective on Working Mothers' Subjectivity and Agency

Abstract

In mainstream Western media, debates about emancipation have come to revolve around the question if women can have it all - motherhood and a successful career. In this thesis, it is outlined which ideas regarding working mothers' subjectivity and agency underpin this question and why these ideas have rendered the having it all debate unresolvable. Moreover, by addressing the work of Saba Mahmood and Bracha L. Ettinger, a theoretical intervention is made in the media debates by offering a different, relational perspective on working mothers' subjectivities and agencies. These different modes of subjectivity and agency are then used as two different perspectives on the lives of Dutch working mothers, which have been invited to share their experiences in focus groups. Ultimately, their stories, viewed through a more affirmative lense, provide a more productive perspective on the emancipation of Dutch working mothers.