Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
12-2017
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
History
Degree Program
History, MA
Committee Chair
Kelland, Lara
Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)
Massoth, Katherine
Committee Member
Massoth, Katherine
Committee Member
Pecknold, Diane
Author's Keywords
gender; women's history; Catholicism; collective memory; history of medicine; feminism
Abstract
La Leche League International (LLL) is the oldest and largest breastfeeding support group in the world. This thesis examines how, beginning in 1956, seven Catholic housewives from suburban Chicago built up the institutional knowledge to sustain a cohesive global network of breastfeeding mothers. It also explores how LLL managed this knowledge over time in response to developments in scholarship and changing social conditions. Based on a narrative analysis of LLL publications, this thesis argues that the League’s founders drew selectively from existing bodies of knowledge and from their own cultural perspectives to establish a sense of community among breastfeeding women. They enhanced this feeling of connection by suggesting that women across time and space shared the same embodied experience of breastfeeding. This thesis adds to existing studies on La Leche League by drawing attention to how the organization developed institutional knowledge and deployed collective identity and memory.
Recommended Citation
Federico, Joanna Paxton, "Since the time of Eve : La Leche League and communities of mothers throughout history." (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2848.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2848
Included in
Catholic Studies Commons, Cultural History Commons, History of Gender Commons, History of Religion Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons, Women's History Commons, Women's Studies Commons
