Exploring Female Reproductive Agency in Margaret Drabble's The Millstone

Abstract

This paper examines Margaret Drabble's The Millstone as a critical intervention in feminist debates on reproductive agency in postwar Britain. It argues that the novel redefines motherhood not as a biologically determined role but as a consciously chosen identity shaped by lived experience, social class and institutional power. Through the protagonist Rosamund Stacey, Drabble challenges essentialist conceptions of womanhood by portraying motherhood as a site of negotiation, resistance and selfformation. Drawing on Michel Foucault's concept of disciplinary power and Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, the paper explores how medical institutions discipline the female body and how maternal identity is performed through care and choice. By presenting diverse female experiences, Drabble challenges monolithic narratives of both motherhood and femininity.

Keywords

Reproductive Agency / Motherhood / Disciplinary Power / British National Health Service

References

[1] Beauvoir S. (2011). The second sex (C. Borde & S. Malovany-Chevallier, Trans.). Vintage Books. (Original work published 1949)

[2] Butler J. (1999). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.

[3] Donnelly M. (2005). Sixties Britain: Culture, society and politics. Pearson/Longman.

[4] Drabble M. (2016). The Millstone. Penguin. (Original work published 1965)

[5] Foucault M. (1995). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Vintage Books. (Original work published 1975)

[6] Liu X. (2023). The Intersectionality of "Narratology", "Feminism", and "Queer". Critical Theory, VOL. 7, NO. 2, 5-27. https://doi.org/10.47297/wspctWSP2515-470202.20230702

[7] Mitchell J. (1971). Woman's estate. Penguin.

[8] Rayson A. (1978). Motherhood in the novels of Margaret Drabble. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 3(2), 43-46. https://doi.org/10.2307/3346399

[9] Rich A. (1995). Of woman born: Motherhood as experience and institution. W. W. Norton & Company. (Original work published 1976)

[10] Spitzer S. (1978). Fantasy and femaleness in Margaret Drabble's "The Millstone". NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, 11(3), 227-245. https://doi.org/10.2307/1344962

[11] Walters M. (2005). Feminism: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.

[12] Woolf V. (2015). Clarke, Eds.). Wiley. (Original work published 1929)