Mothers We Care For and Mothers We Care About: Redefining ‘Good Motherhood’ through Maternal Activism in Contemporary Lithuania

• In Event: “Good Mothers” and (Nation)lisms: The Case of Lithuania, Authoritarian Russia, and of the Postsocialist Migrant Mothers in Sweden

Abstract

In recent years, Lithuania has been identified as one of the fastest-shrinking countries globally, intensifying “demographic anxiety” through state’s discourse on depopulation as an existential threat to the Lithuanian state and inevitably placing maternal citizenship at the center of political and public discourse. However, despite the persistent discourse of a “dying nation,” not all mothers are recognized as suitable reproductive subjects in the national project of demographic survival. Over the past two decades, a range of mother-led initiatives - spanning from advocacy for family policy reforms to campaigns for reproductive rights and birth choices - have actively contested and negotiated the boundaries of maternal recognition and support. This contribution examines how these maternal movements engage with gendered politics of care, strategically employing “mothering rhetorics” (O’Brien Hallstein 2017) to assert claims for state recognition and support. Drawing on Fiona Williams’ (2012) framework of “care from below” and “care from above,” this contribution explores three key dimensions of maternal activism in Lithuania: (1) advocacy surrounding the societal value of biological and social reproduction, (2) struggles for reproductive justice, and (3) public performances of maternal vulnerability. Through this lens, I will offer insights into how maternal activists navigate ideological constructions of motherhood in their demands for care and recognition, ultimately addressing the question: in an era of demographic anxiety, which mothers are deemed worthy of state support in Lithuania today?

Author

• Ieva Bisigirskaitė, Vilnius U (Lithuania)