Available From UC Press

The rights of pregnant workers as well as (the lack of) paid maternity leave have increasingly become topics of a major policy debate in the United States. Yet, few discussions have focused on the U.S. military, where many of the latest policy changes focus on these very issues. Despite the armed forces' increases to maternity-related benefits, servicewomen continue to be stigmatized for being pregnant and taking advantage of maternity policies. In an effort to understand this disconnect, Megan McFarlane analyzes military documents and conducts interviews with enlisted servicewomen and female officers. She finds a policy/culture disparity within the military that pregnant servicewomen themselves often co-construct, making the policy changes significantly less effective. McFarlane ends by offering suggestions for how these policy changes can have more impact and how they could potentially serve as an example for the broader societal debate.

Megan D. McFarlane is Assistant Professor of Communication at Marymount University. Her books include The Rhetorical Invention of America's National Security State and Cultural Rhetorics of American Exceptionalism and the bin Laden Raid. 

"McFarlane investigates how a military culture of hypermasculinity frames pregnancy as problematic in spite of policies designed to accommodate it. Importantly, she also offers suggestions for the kinds of systemic and cultural changes needed to eliminate discrimination against pregnant workers in the military and in society at large."—Sara Hayden, Professor of Communication Studies, University of Montana

"Through an analysis of women’s lived experience in the military, this book exposes the "circuit of discipline" formed in the relationship between policy (material reality) and cultural practice (socially constructed reality). While the book explicates the specific challenges working military mothers face, it also provides an exemplar for challenging the relationship of policy and practice faced by other marginalized populations whose ability to define their working environments is short-circuited."—Dr. Paaige K. Turner, Dean of the College of Communication, Information, and Media, Ball State University

"McFarlane is breaking new ground with the focus on women’s maternity experiences in the military."—Tasha N. Dubriwny, Associate Professor of Communication, Texas A&M University

"This book's contribution is to shed light on a previously under-explored topic: women's experiences of pregnancy and motherhood in the military. The author makes a compelling case. An excellent piece of scholarship in every regard."—Amy Koerber, Professor of Communications, Texas Tech University