Between the estate and the state: struggling to be a ‘good’ mother

The paper draws on an ESRC‐funded study of 70 families in two London locations. It focuses on a set of contemporary and contradictory political discourses that work on and through the lives of working‐class mothers and thereby create tensions and impossibilities within their lives. We illustrate the ways in which these women are positioned by and within these discourses in ways that leave them vulnerable to political and media criticisms.