Honors Theses
Date of Award
Spring 5-8-2020
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Liberal Studies
First Advisor
Katherine Centellas
Second Advisor
William Schenck
Third Advisor
Emily Fransee
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Breastfeeding rates in France are among the lowest in high-income countries, indicating that French mothers do not breastfeed for nearly as long as is recommended by healthcare professionals and international health organizations. French government, society and conflicting feminist perspectives all influence the likelihood that mothers will breastfeed. The French government has regulations in place to protect women’s right to breastfeed in public and in the workplace, but it is unclear if these are truly beneficial for French women. French society is a seemingly inhospitable environment in which mothers do not feel safe and secure to breastfeed publicly. Motherhood and feminism are two ideas currently at odds in France. Modern French feminists do not support breastfeeding or mothers being enslaved by their responsibility to their children. There are many factors affecting French mothers’ willingness to and duration of breastfeeding, but as French feminism has evolved over the years it has become clear that they are making way for a new definition of motherhood and challenging its compatibility with feminism.
Recommended Citation
Wadsworth, Megan, "Feminism and Low Breastfeeding Rates in France" (2020). Honors Theses. 1408.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1408
Accessibility Status
Searchable text
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Included in
Maternal and Child Health Commons, Other International and Area Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons