Feminism, psychology and social policy: Constructing political boundaries at the grassroots

Dominant ideologies of motherhood, reproduction and the family powerfully p ervade public policies and are perhaps influential enough to define aspects of everyday life. Ideology and how best to challenge it therefore constitu te important issues for psychology, social policy and feminism. In this art icle I argue for a feminist psychology of resistance that departs from a fe minist critique of mainstream psychology or academic politics based on voic e. Drawing on my experiences as a researcher involved in social activism ar ound reproduction and motherhood, I aim to highlight the dilemmas and possi bilities of making challenges through the genre of 'voice' (that is, as pro blematized through the politics of experience and representation). I argue that such dilemmas should not simply be reconciled in a textual way, but th at we must use the spaces they create to forge connections between those re searching social issues and those who have experience in their everyday liv es of resistance and challenge.