An Australian History of Lesbian Mothers: two points of emergence

This article compares two key moments in the Australian emergence of the political identity of lesbian mothers. It documents the first national lesbian mothers conference in 1984 and then the eruption of lesbian mothers onto the front pages of major Australian newspapers in 2000. From its founding in a lesbian-feminist politics of ambivalence about motherhood, the identity became increasingly shaped by a postmodern discourse of self-invention, an embrace of motherhood and a liberal politics of equal rights. The article argues that contemporary lesbian mothers could usefully recover ambivalence about motherhood as a key strategic response to the challenges of neo-liberalism.