This work explores matrophobia - the fear not of one's mother or of
motherhood but of becoming one's mother - in past and present white
feminist analyses of motherhood and mothering. By tracing white second
wave feminism's strategic choice to organize first as sisters then as
daughters, O'Brien Hallstein argues matrophobia became embedded in past
and continues to linger in contemporary feminist analyses. As a result,
contemporary analyses reveal crucially important but limited
understandings of contemporary motherhood and mothering. This important
work concludes that matrophobia can be reduced and eliminated by
reorienting analyses to mutual responsiveness between sisters and
daughters, second and third wave feminists.