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interpretation is, but to tell us where that interpretation sits in relation to the
notion of some discourses being better than others. If we do not do this we are in
danger of having only description’. (2002: 459-500)
If, as the research above suggests, all-female interactions are discursive sites in which
women compete for, and sustain acceptable social identities, then examining everyday
conversational data is likely to reveal social patterns of acceptance. For the women in
these interactions [and by inference other women] the ‘good mother’ is a gender role that
overrides individual self-needs and allows women to accrue ‘capital’ within a social
marketplace. In responding to Wilson’s challenge, it is not enough to merely describe the
way subject-positions are constructed within the talk, we also need to consider how this
discourse is situated amongst competing discourses and whether or not the talk functions
to recycle negative social role models. Despite the fact that the social model of what
constitutes the ideal family is being rapidly redefined, the themes arising in these
conversations reflect a model of parenting that is still defined and constrained by the
characteristics of the traditional non-working [female] mother. The women’s verbal
resistance, through humorous self-evaluation could be seen as an alternative discourse
but, paradoxically, the need to resist a social role is in itself an act that marks the salience
of that particular social role. The stress reported in trying to live up to this ideal does
appear to have an actual effect on the lives of some of these women and the content of
their talk reflects the need for society to redefine its expectations of mothers in relation to
the ‘guilt’ attached to participating in both the professional and domestic realms.
Convention