This chapter provides an overview of extant state-of-the-art international research scholarship on mothering, with a specific focus on biographical approaches to mothering and motherhood. We specifically engage with the potential of biographical research methods in relation to the book's principal themes (for example, individualisation, decision-making, selfidentification, choice, non-normative mothering and agency), which both shape and reflect the multidimensionality of mothering in diverse social and cultural circumstances and culturally anticipated narratives of idealised motherhoods. This volume engages with three (intersecting) notions of reflexivity, positionalities and the multilayered nature of everyday lived realities, which are intrinsic to biographical research perspectives (Wengraf, 2001; Chamberlayne et al, 2002; Caetano, 2019). It discusses key theoretical and methodological perspectives on mothering in relation to salient topics: definitions of mothering, identity, ethics and cultural sensitivity of the biographical approach.

Exploring the multidimensionality of mothering

Complexity of everyday mothering practices

The area of research on mothering is very broad and is rapidly developing (Smyth, 2012; Ennis, 2014; Lee et al, 2014). The impact of feminist scholarship in the arts, literature and academia the increased feminisation of workforces in western societies, raised educational attainments for women, ongoing political debates with regard to reproductive politics and social movements such as MeToo have further accelerated this expansion of mothering research (O’Reilly, 2010; Lee et al, 2014; Yoo, 2020). In her review study, Arendell (2000) categorised research on mothering and motherhood into four overlapping domains: identities and meanings of mothering; relationships, with both children and others; experiences and activities of mothering; and the social locations and structural contexts from within which women care for their children and other family members, which pertain to education and economic factors. Significantly, Arendell further illuminates the significance of class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, national origin and immigrant background in research agendas of mothering generally. While Arendell's work originated two decades ago, and is based primarily on the North American experiences of mothering and motherhood, present international research on mothering may be broadly couched within these intersecting categorisations, although novel themes emerge as motherhood and society evolves and changes.