Mothermess in the Academy: A Collaborative Autoethnography on Mothering in Doctoral Studies

In this collaborative autoethnography, one early-career scholar and two doctoral students examine their experiences as mothers pursuing doctoral degrees. Recent research on doctoral student mothers suggests deeper investigation into this topic is needed to create more equitable spaces in higher education. Drawing on matricentric feminist theory, the three authors interweave personal narratives of mothering during doctoral studies, theorizing these experiences through norms of patriarchal motherhood --specifically, the norms of essentialization, individualization, intensification, and idealization of maternity. In doing so, we consider how, both separately and together, we reproduce, resist, and reimagine higher education systems to better support mothering doctoral students.