[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignright size-full wp-image-1606”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“100”,“height”:“100”,“alt”:“New York Times”}}]]In an opinion piece written for The New York Times, Amy Allen, Parents Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities and chair of the Department of Philosophy, speaks to what she identifies as a recent “flare-up” in the “mommy wars,” sparked in part by the recent publication in English of The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women, by French philosopher Elisabeth Badinter.

Calling attention to Badinter’s observation that “the debate over mothering is not just a conflict between feminists and women in general but rather a conflict internal to feminism itself,” Allen surveys recent feminist theory, and then notes the continuing need for theory to provide “practical insights” for the “practice of mothering.”

Allen concludes: “If the ‘the conflict’ continues to be framed as one between women—between liberal and cultural feminists, or between stay at home mothers and working women, or between affluent professionals and working class women, or between mothers and childless women—it will continue to distract us from what we should really be doing: working together—women and men together—to change the cultural, social, and economic conditions within these crucial choices are made.”

Read the full story, published 5/27/12 by The New York Times blog The Stone.