Project description
A legal view of matrescence
Many mothers face distress during pregnancy and postpartum, which are characterised by intense emotional fluctuations (matrescence). Currently, there is limited legal support and European lawmakers overlook key issues such as early pregnancy loss and the ‘motherhood penalty’ at work. The ERC-funded MaMas project aims to establish a legal framework for maternal rights during matrescence, based on women’s lived experiences. It will analyse health, labour, and welfare laws and explore women’s perceptions of their rights. Highlighting gaps in the current legal landscape, the project will develop new concepts including inter-dependency rights and the right to time. It will also evaluate the legal status of unpaid childcare work and create a legal theory of maternal rights.
Objective
Many mothers in Western Europe experience some distress during the times of pregnancy, birth and postpartum, a period called “matrescence”. Although health, social and welfare laws offer some protection and accommodation to women during matrescence, the approach is fragmented and incomplete. The law has yet to address issues such as early pregnancy loss, obstetric violence, and the “motherhood penalty” at work. These experiences have been under-explored and under-theorised in law and feminist legal theory, despite their implications for the rights to health, non-discrimination, dignity, autonomy, work and equality. The lack of a holistic approach to maternal rights during matrescence represents a major problem for women’s rights and gender equity in Europe.
The overall aim of MaMas is to develop a first legal framework of maternal rights during matrescence, anchored in women’s embodied experiences of matrescence, and to re-imagine rights from their vantage point. Using legal comparative methods and socio-legal methods, MaMas maps and analyzes health, labor, and welfare laws at national, regional and international levels to uncover which rights women have during this transition. Through qualitative methods, it investigates women’s experiences of matrescence, including their experience of rights. Based on the legal and qualitative analyses, the project identifies gaps in the current legal approach, develops new legal language and concepts to translate women’s experiences into law, and explores risks of essentialization.
MaMas breaks new theoretical ground by constructing a legal theory of maternal rights during matrescence. Using a gender embodiment lens, it explores for the first time new pathways for the recognition of women’s rights during matrescence. This includes the development of new legal concepts and language, such as inter-dependency rights, right to time, respectful corporal rights, and the interrogation of the legal status of unpaid childcare work.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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4000 Roskilde
Denmark
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