Michelle’s Reviews > Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother > Status Update

The word “mother,” used as a noun and as a strictly defined identity, can isolate women, a fact that’s become all the clearer in recent years. Mothering, as a verb, as something anyone can do—whether they’ve birthed children (…) whether they have the anatomy to birth children—has helped communities from Boston to Littleton to Nigeria spread the burden and the joy of raising children.