Ideas on Parenthood and Art Coming Together for Gender Equality
'Superhero and Rocket' (2023) by Joshua Y'Barbo. Marker, paint and collage on card. Daughter-daddy collaborative drawing. 21 cm x 29.7 cm
As an artist-in-residence at the TEAM LEWIS Foundation, I explore the connection between art and communication. My work involves writing about important social and sustainability issues within art and culture. Recently, I delved into the topic of Parenthood and Art Coming Together for Gender Equality following the celebration of #GlobalDayOfParents. The United Nations has increasingly recognised the vital role of the family since the 1980s. The General Assembly has adopted several resolutions and proclaimed the International Year of the Family and the International Day of Families. The Global Day of Parents emphasises the crucial role of parents in raising children, acknowledging that the family bears the primary responsibility for nurturing and protecting children. For children to fully and harmoniously develop their personalities, they should grow up in a family environment of happiness, love, and understanding (Global Day of Parents, nd).
Introduction
Throughout ancient, modern, and contemporary art histories, artists have depicted the diverse challenges of parenting in response to evolving family structures and changing gender roles heavily influenced by societal norms, which continue to need scrutiny and reconsideration. Art from the Roman Empire shows a distinct absence of women, favouring patriarchal lineage. For instance, in a chapter discussing the construction of childhood in ancient Greece and Italy, Jeannine Diddle Uzzi wrote, 'My interest in this painting lies in its presentation of the child Ascanius within a family group, a familia that preserves the male line down to the third generation but is apparently devoid of women.' The absence of women in depictions of family groups reflects the patriarchal society where the emphasis was placed on the male lineage and the continuity of the family name. This indicated that female representation's marginalisation and perceived importance within the family line are at the root of Western aesthetics and thought.
IX.13.5 Pompeii. 1913. Painting of Aeneas, his father Anchises and son Ascanius fleeing from Troy. Available here.
Joos Van Cleve (follower) (Flemish, ca. 1485-1540) Madonna and Child, 16th century Oil and tempera on board. Available here.
Classical art is full of representations of the Madonna and Child but usually absent of father figures. Yet, it does not lack direct reference to divine conception, thus making Mary's birth a gift miraculously conceived. One such example is a 16th-century painting of Madonna and Child (1485-1540) by one of Joos Can Cleve's followers. According to Jason E. Shaiman, Curator of Exhibitions at the Miami University of Art Museum, 'This work […] portrays the emotional connection between mother and child as Mary gazes lovingly upon her sleeping infant (Krazl, nd). This work represents the loving connection between mother and child. The mother's exposed breast both symbolises nursing and nurturing through breast-feeding, while at the same time, provokes '[…] a sensual and sexed virgin space that must be conceived (Liss, 2009, p. xv). Thus, viewing depictions of Mary and Jesus, like this one, found throughout classical art antiquity tells a different story of fighting repressing representation of motherhood by Feminist Artists. For example, Liss (2009, p.xiv) wrote in her Introduction to Feminist Art and the Maternal, that '[…] the Virgin Mary and her adamant without-child-young- woman-self have both been repressed, disdained, and perversely made the target of patriarchal love, hate, and fear.' Although intended to symbolise joy and responsibility, portrayals of Mary and the infant Jesus can be seen as limiting mother figures to a narrow dimension of self-identification and cultural position. The concept of motherhood is often associated with the idea of begotten conception and divinity bestowed upon them rather than being seen as something that comes from within their own bodies and contributes to their sense of self as they nurture their child. Contrarily, the absence of the father overlooks the diverse roles that fathers and non-binary parents have played in raising children, especially when viewing contemporary art.
In contemporary art, we see different views of parenthood. As the world becomes more aware of the subtleties of individual gender identity and larger sub-groups and groups of non-binary identifying peoples, so does our acknowledgement and support for diversity in parental roles. According to Ann Coxon (nd), Curator of International Art at Tate,
In contemporary art, we see different views of parenthood. As the world becomes more aware of the subtleties of individual gender identity and larger sub-groups and groups of non-binary identifying peoples, so does our acknowledgement and support for diversity in parental roles. According to Ann Coxon (nd), Curator of International Art at Tate,
There's […] a series of photographs by an artist called Laura Aguilar, who is showing a lesbian couple expecting. They're very intimate portraits of the couple, very loving couple. It was very important to me that we show parenthood can take many different forms and different guises.
Clothed/Unclothed #30 by Laura Aguilar (1994). The image was sourced from the RISD Museum and is available here.
From the days of the Roman Empire to contemporary art, these depictions reveal the shifting dynamics within families, the evolving roles of mothers and fathers, and changes in these roles reflecting our evolving understanding of the complexities of gender identification and responsible parenting. For example, women taking on the role of breadwinners and men providing care as stay-at-home dads, or the commonality of single parenting, two-home families, and the widening understanding and acceptance of LGBTQ+ parenting couples. These representations reflect challenges to traditional patriarchal family setups and the emergence of gender-fluid parenting roles as a natural and long-standing part of family dynamics that trace our current understanding of gender identities.
Multifaceted Experiences of Parenthood
The intersection of art and parenthood has evolved to reflect changing dynamics as contemporary artists increasingly explore the multifaceted experiences of motherhood and fatherhood. For example, research conducted on 'Time, Money, or Gender? Predictors of the Division of Household Labour Across Life Stages' by Rebecca M. Horne, Matthew D. Johnson, Nancy L. Galambos & Harvey J. Krahn, published in 2017, considered a life course approach and utilising information collected during three developmental stages (age 25, 32, and 43), examining the distribution of household tasks among men and women in Canada. The team explored the correlations between household chore allocation and factors such as time availability (e.g., work hours), relative resources (e.g., earning a larger portion of the household income), and gender roles (e.g., marital status and childcare responsibilities) across the three life stages.Results indicated women performed more housework than men at all ages. Regression analyses revealed housework responsibility was most reliably predicted by relative income and gender at age 25; work hours and raising children at age 32; and work hours, relative income, and gender at age 43. Gender moderated the influence of raising children at age 32.
Horne, Johnson, Galambos & Krahn (2017).
During the 1960s and 70s, the second-wave feminism movement highlighted the importance of women's voices and experiences in art and society. Mary Kelly, an influential artist during this time, is known for her groundbreaking work that reflects the challenges and complexities of motherhood and female identity. One of her most iconic pieces, Post-Partum Document (1973-79), is a powerful exploration of the maternal experience, presenting a unique and unfiltered perspective on the realities of motherhood. Kelly's work has significantly reshaped the discourse around gender roles, caregiving, and family dynamics in art and beyond. According to Coxon,
So Mary Kelly's very iconic work, Postpartum Document, really is a kind of complex form of diary or journaling, that she kept for the first few years of her son's life. You know she really was trying to kind of chart in quite a dispassionate way, the things that were happening, the developments that he was going through but also the way that she was feeling about it and her relationship with him.
Tate (nd).
Post-Partum, Documentation V (1973-79) by Mary Kelly. Image sourced from here.
Representation of Gender Roles within Households
Art serves as a platform for representing and challenging traditional perspectives of gender roles within the household, as demonstrated through the portrayal of feminine and masculine roles in caregiving and domestic responsibilities. Research conducted on 'Husbands and Wives in Dual-Earner Marriages: Decision-Making, Gender Role Attitudes, Division of Household Labor, and Equity' by Sharon J. Bartley, Priscilla W. Blanton, and Jennifer L. Gilliard (2005) examined the shifting away from traditional family roles, where husbands were the primary breadwinners and wives were homemakers, has led to a need for renegotiating control and decision-making within the family. This change challenges gender equality and marital equity. Regardless of this change in gender roles within the household, studies still show the traditional division of labour by gender remains prevalent.Findings indicated that decision-making, low-control household labor, and high-control household labor differed significantly between husbands and wives. Wives spent more time in household labor and were much more likely to be involved in low-control household tasks. Perceptions of marital equity were influenced by decision making and time spent in low-control household tasks for both husbands and wives.
Bartley, Blanton, and Gilliard (2005).
Although this research is nearly twenty years old, it highlights the importance of challenging and changing traditional household gender roles. It indicates a need to address and shift away from the binary expectations of gender roles to promote greater equality in decision-making and the division of household labour. This could lead to more equitable and balanced relationships between spouses and households.
My Mother, My Father, My Sister, My Brother (1996-7) by Donald Rodney (b.1961– d.1998) consists of intricate sculptures he carved from his body. The artwork suggests the strong biological or emotional connections that some families build themselves around, reflecting individuals' personal experiences while also highlighting the diverse experiences of others. These sculptures exemplify the conceptual importance of contemporary art and serve as a metaphor for the human experience. These sculptures depict the closeness and fragility connected to a person's home. Rodney captured images of sculptures he created using his shed skin while in the hospital. He transformed these sculptures, which symbolise the embodied concept of home and the roles within a household, into individual works of art made with the artist's deteriorated skin. By incorporating parts of himself into the artwork, Rodney highlights the less-recognised aspects of parenting, such as the interaction between caregiving and providing for a family. This suggests the importance of understanding these dynamics more broadly. These roles are often attributed solely to men and women but are more often shared in varying degrees. For example, Tanya Barson (2002) summarised aspects of this work stated:
In the House of My Father is a close-up photographic image of Donald Rodney’s hand, in which sits a minute sculpture of a house. The sculpture exists as an independent work, My Mother. My Father. My Sister. My Brother (1996-7) […]. It was constructed from pieces of Rodney’s own skin removed during one of the many operations he underwent to combat sickle cell anaemia, an inherited disease that affects people of African, Caribbean, Eastern Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Asian ancestry. Both works address Rodney’s sense of family and identity, as a British-born artist whose parents had emigrated from Jamaica, as well as themes relating to mortality and his own illness.
Rodney's artwork examines the concept of inheritance from physical, social, and economic perspectives. The close-up image of Rodney's hand holding a miniature house represents the idea of inheriting the role of a provider, aligning with the societal expectation of passing down economic stability and leadership within the household. The series of sculptures and details about Rodney's illness and mortality suggest that the nurturing and caring role traditionally associated with inheritance is distributed among the individual sculptures. Each sculpture is named after a typical nuclear family member, implying that this nurturing role is shared equally among all family members, challenging traditional gender stereotypes and emphasising the equal distribution of social and emotional inheritance. The artwork amplifies the dynamics of inheritance within the family and prompts more profound reflections on the inheritance of values, responsibilities, and societal constructs. Artists have the potential to promote greater equality by questioning traditional patterns of inheritance.
In the House of my Father (1996-7) by Donald Rodney (The Estate of Donald G. Rodney, London). Image sourced from Tate, available here.
Dynamic and Diverse Parenthood: Be a Bit of Both!
It seems that despite our efforts to challenge traditional gender and household roles, ingrained family values hinder us from embracing a more flexible approach to parenting, detached from existing gender norms. For example, in research conducted on 'Father Involvement, Care, and Breadwinning: Genealogies of Concepts and Revisioned Conceptual Narratives', Andrea Doucet (2019) explored the evolving roles of fathers in parenting and household responsibilities, aiming to challenge traditional binary definitions. Doucet examined the concept of "material indirect care" by Joseph Pleck, which links earning money to caregiving, and "provisioning" from feminist economists, highlighting the interwoven nature of caregiving and paid work.I argue that an approach to concepts that connect or entangle caring and breadwinning recognizes that people are care providers, care receivers, financial providers, and financial receivers in varied and multiple ways across time. This move is underpinned by, and can shift, our understandings of human subjectivity as relational and intra-dependent, with inevitable periods of dependency and vulnerability across the life course.
Doucet (2019).
This understanding suggests that parenthood is not confined to binary roles but is instead a fluid and evolving concept that is shared among partners, regardless of their gender. It allows for a more dynamic and diverse view of parenting that transcends traditional gender roles and promotes shared responsibilities within a family.
Many artists use their creativity to question and subvert traditional gender roles, shedding light on the impact of societal expectations on our lives. This can provoke meaningful discussions and encourage people to consider alternative perspectives on these issues. For example, 'A. K. Summers' graphic memoir Pregnant Butch: Nine Long Months Spent in Drag (2014) visually enunciates the author's lived experience as a pregnant butch in a cis-normative culture' (Murali & Parvathy, 2024). According to Chinmay Murali & Parvathy (2024), Summers aims to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ reproductive experiences, sharing personal challenges as a queer parent and the cultural significance of being a 'child's mother' in a non-normative queer family. She believes comics can portray taboo experiences and emphasises the importance of visual-verbal expression. Summers also discusses the impact of homophobic attitudes on medical perspectives of queer motherhood and the significance of queer autobiographical comics in reducing stigma within the LGBTQ+ community. So, exploring the connection between traditional gender roles and family values is relevant in the art context, as many artists use their work to challenge and critique societal norms and expectations. Art can be a powerful platform for conversations about gender, family dynamics, and societal conventions.
Conclusion
Through artistic expression, the ever-changing concepts of parenthood and family dynamics are brought to light, offering a deeper understanding of the diverse experiences of mothers and fathers in today's society. Balancing a career in the arts while raising children presents conflicting challenges of being present for your children while also needing isolation to create, write, and foster creativity. So, what is the role of an artist-parent? The answer is that we play the role of caring parents and sometimes the role of an artist working alone to different degrees. The same complexity arises from juggling multiple professional and household roles, such as being a mother at times and a father at others. Whether it's about creating art or the context of being an artist, parenthood and art encompass multifaceted experiences, challenge gender roles, and promote acceptance of diverse parenthood. The connection between parenthood, art, and the challenges to gender roles and diverse parenthood has implications for addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to Gender Equality (Goal 5), Reduced Inequalities (Goal 10), and Sustainable Cities and Communities (Goal 11). By recognising and addressing the impact of parenthood and art on these goals, we can work towards promoting gender equality, reducing inequalities, and creating sustainable communities.This article's perspective on art and parenthood offers a broad overview of the evolving dynamics within families and the changing roles of mothers, fathers, and non-binary parents. However, further exploration and in-depth analysis are needed in several areas to support future sustainable development. By delving deeper into the multifaceted experiences of parenthood and gender, artists can contribute to a greater understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by mothers and non-binary parents. Similarly, examining fatherhood and changing masculinity through art can provide insight into the evolving roles of fathers and the redefinition of masculinity within the context of parenting. Shifting household roles and LGBTQ+ experiences as parents present opportunities for artists to depict and celebrate the diversity of family structures, contributing to a more inclusive and accepting society. Ultimately, exploring what essentially makes a house a home through art can illuminate the emotional, psychological, and cultural aspects that define a nurturing and supportive family environment, contributing to creating sustainable and harmonious communities.
References
Barson, T. (2002). Summary. In the House of My Father 1996–7, Donald Rodney. Tate. Available (online) at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rodney-in-the-house-of-my-father-p78529 (Accessed 3 July 2024).Bartley, S., Blanton, P., and Gilliard, J. (2005). Husbands and Wives in Dual-Earner Marriages: Decision-Making, Gender Role Attitudes, Division of Household Labor, and Equity. Marriage & Family Review, 37:4, 69-94. Available (online) at: https://doi.org/10.1300/J002v37n04_05 (Accessed 3 July 2024).
Murali & Parvathy. (2024). "I set out to make a comic that I would want to read": a conversation on queer motherhood and LGBTQ+ comics with A.K. Summers. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 15:2, 298-304, DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2023.2233582
Global Day of Parents. (nd). United Nations. Available at: https://www.un.org/en/observances/parents-day (Accessed: 04 July 2024).
Horne, Johnson, Galambos & Krahn (2017). Time, Money, or Gender? Predictors of the Division of Household Labour Across Life Stages. Sex Roles. Volume 78. Available (online) at: https://link.springer.com/journal/11199 (Accessed 3 July 2024).
Krazl, S. (nd). Madonna and Child. sites.miamioh.edu. Available (online) at: https://sites.miamioh.edu/muam-arthistory/2020/04/madonna-and-child/#:~:text=This (Accessed 3 Jul 2024).
Liss, A. (2009). Thinking (M)otherwise. Feminist Art and the Maternal, University of Minnesota Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=433188.
Tate (nd) Motherhood & art, Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/family-and-art/motherhood-art (Accessed: 03 July 2024).
Uzzi, J. D. (2007). The Power of Parenthood in Official Roman Art. Hesperia Supplements, 41, 61–81. Available (online) at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20066783 (Accessed 25 June 2024).
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