themselves. Going back to the 1950s, you see mothers accepting the knowledge of mainly male experts, such as doctors, celebrities and psychologists, on how to ‘consume correctly’ and care for their children. Although they were allowed some expertise, it was that of a mother and it ‘obviously didn’t count’ – the professional expertise was more important. Decisions on which particular brands of toothpaste, vitamins or clothing they should buy are legitimised by being ‘doctor’-approved. This partly reflects society. It was a very deferential society in the 1950s, of women to men, of non-experts to experts, of working class to middle class, of workers to professionals. This underlying deference, very definitely reflected in the ads, sees woman being told what to do by the experts and entirely accepting that is the right way to do it. One 1950s advertisement for eggs from AWW shows a happy, wholesomelooking mother standing by a farmhouse with a basket of eggs. A male doctor points to the eggs and below him sits a block of text presenting the “medical point-of-view” of why she should feed her family eggs. As you go through the 70 years, the mother becomes more educated, more on the ball, more of an expert almost in her own right, but what is interesting is that she does not move out of the family setting. It is a gradual process, but there is a shift. From the 1980s onwards, you have professional women appearing alongside the mother. You have a working mum basically. But it is interesting that it is still the mum side that is prioritised and gets the accolades and affirmation. Readers are presented with the efficient mother who knows exactly how to manage her private (family) and professional (work) life without compromising her family, bringing her professional skills to her mothering role rather than her mothering skills appearing in the workplace. It is when you have the middle class becoming professionalised working women – working-class women have worked for a long time – that you suddenly get an interesting shift. There is a greater sense of equality between the audience and the storyteller. By 2000 and 2010, the way adverts address the audience is different; women are not being talked down to any more, it is more a case of ‘this is our expertise, but we recognise you also have expertise in your area; why don’t we put it together and see how it might help you in your role as a mother?’ The tone changes, as does the way the audience is addressed. Mothers negotiate their way around complex scientific facts, sifting through claims about subjects such as genetically modified foods. Mothers need to know enough to be able to ask questions about climate change, cognitive development and GMO food, to know how to consume and protect their children. But the mother of the 21st century is still in the family home according to these advertisements, which continue to reinforce traditional gender stereotypes. The advertisements show women using their knowledge predominately to consume well on behalf of their children, thus fulfilling their primary maternal role. The domestic not the professional sphere continues to drive a woman’s knowledge within these depictions, she is still regarded as a ‘knowing mother’, an expert mother. A big question many people will ask is ‘how much change has there been in society?’ I think in a university we live in a very privileged part of the world, and it is very easy to take that lens and assume everybody else has that privilege. I don’t think it works that way at all; I suspect there are many communities that remain very patriarchal. Women remain caught in that maternal and patriarchal hegemony. It is still the mothering role that counts. Although they have increased expertise and understanding, the advertisements show it is still particularly important within that mothering role. Within these advertisements, women do not rise above that role and it remains the main priority in many women’s lives. The representation of the knowing mother is presented as what mothers should aspire to, and this is an enduring vision across seven decades and two continents. It is the knowing mother, not the knowing woman, that remains the lynchpin. Margaret K. Hogg an Emeritus Professor of Consumer Behaviour and Marketing The original article The ‘Knowing Mother’: ‘Maternal’ knowledge and the reinforcement of the feminine consuming subject in magazine advertising, was written with Teresa Davis (University of Sydney Business School); David Marshall (University of Edinburgh Business School); Alan Petersen (Monash University Faculty of Arts); and Tanja Schneider (St Gallen University), and was published in the Journal of Consumer Culture. m.hogg@lancaster.ac.uk FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 27
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