Double Jeopardy

"... [Turnbull] weaves a trenchant critique of elements of the law's portrayal of mothers and points to avenues for resistance and change."

Double Jeopardy provides an insightful analysis on how the law shapes the ircumstances in which women in contemporary Canadian society mother. [It] is a great resource for creating public understanding of the range of disadvantages that women experience on a day-to-day basis. I would recommend this book to all mothers and to those involved in the study and practice of law. This book sets out clearly and effectively the disadvantages faced by mothers. Turnbull provides a detailed and well-researched study of each topic. The discussion of recent case law and the insights of a mother make this book a very useful tool for discussion and development of the law and its impact on mothers.

Lorna Turnbull's book addresses [the] contradictions of motherhood in an integrated way that few academic authors achieve. Her ability to do so stems from the fact that she is a mother as well as a feminist, an academic, and an activist. ... To redress [society's] silence concerning motherwork, Turnbull sets out to uncover the role that law plays in relation to the various myths, stereotypes and expectations about motherhood. Her overall conclusion is grim: "Laws do not support mothers and mothers pay twice for the children they have chosen to mother: This is double jeopardy."(p. 24) Turnbull illustrates the bind within which mothers are caught. If they get on with being a Good Mother and do it well, their work remains invisible and undervalued. But if they are perceived as a Bad Mother, their work will no longer be invisible (indeed, it may well be heavily scrutinized), but it will still not be valued. Moreover, the dificult circumstances under which many women undertake motherwork, often aggravated by poverty, racism, violence, sexism and homophobia, will also tend to be unseen. ...

To her credit, Turnbull has made this book accessible to non-academic and non-law readers. A glossary and summaries of key cases appear at the end of the book. Chapter 2 offers a basic introduction for those with little expertise on the Canadian legal system or on the ways in which feminists have theorized and engaged with law and with mothering. ...

This book's strengths include its interdisciplinary approach, drawing on a variety of literatures, and its illustration of how law regulates mothering by reference to several key issues: employment, pensions, breastfeeding, divorce and family law, and child protection, with particular attention to pregnancy (including abortion and apprehension of children in utero) and income tax. Although these topics have been analyzed by other feminists, often in greater depth, it is the way that Turnbull connects the issues thematically though her focus on motherwork that forms the originality of this book.

... In addition to exploring the possibilities of litigation, Turnbull suggests political strategies ... These include universal childcare, enriched maternity benefits of longer duration, an enriched, universal child tax benefit, more flexible employment laws for part-time employment, adequate prenatal support, and no state regulation of pregnant women. Turnbull also suggests ways to avoid debates that pit two-and single-earner families, and "working mothers" and "home-based mothers," against each other. ... She supports the right of mothers to make different choices about how to provide for their children's care, without disproportionate cost.

For anyone who has never thought about the complex choices that women make concerning mothering, and the consequences -- and, often, costs -- that arise from these choices, I highly recommend this book. For those who have considered these questions, but not considered law's relationship to motherhood, or, indeed, to social change, Turnbull provides an excellent introduction. She has a remarkable facility to make complex analyses clear, and she draws a wide range of topics and literatures together with skill, clarity, and succinctness.