What Is Matricentric Feminism — And Why the World Needs It Now

Why Mothers Are Missing From Feminism

Let’s start with something I see/hear way too often: “I’m not really a feminist.”

If that’s you, I get it. A lot of women, especially mothers, feel disconnected from the word feminism. Maybe it sounds like a movement for someone else , like women who aren’t mothers yet, or who have the freedom to march, organize, or sleep eight hours a night. For many of us, motherhood changes everything. Our time, our energy, our sense of identity. Suddenly, what we care about shifts. And yet, here’s the thing that keeps me up at night: the world still doesn’t know how to care for mothers. We live in a culture that tells women they can do anything, but then abandons them the moment they become mothers.

That’s where something called Matricentric Feminism comes in. This is a feminist movement that that finally puts mothers where they belong , at the center of conversations about equality, care, and community.

What Matricentric Feminism Means

Matricentric Feminism is a term created by scholar Andrea O’Reilly. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to get academic (though I am very much an academic nerd!). The idea is simple: feminism has done a lot for women, but it forgot about mothers.

Traditional feminism fought for women’s rights in the workplace, for bodily autonomy, for access to education and leadership. Those things matter deeply. But what about the women who are mothering? Who are raising the next generation, often without support or recognition? Matricentric Feminism says that mothers’ experiences deserve their own focus. It recognizes that being a mother changes how you move through the world — financially, emotionally, and socially. It’s about creating systems that value motherhood, not punish it.

This is the feminism that says your body, your mind, and your labor as a mother have worth. It says the work of care is the backbone of society. It says that when we care for mothers, we build a better world for everyone. Discovering Matricentric Feminism nearly two decades into my mothering journey and decade into my professional career supporting mothers, felt like I was an astronaut discovering a whole new planet. When I tell you it altered my brain chemistry, that is an understatement.

How We Got Here

Let’s rewind for a second. Patriarchy (don’t stop reading, this part is brief but important) built a world where women were expected to mother, but not supported in doing so. Motherhood became both glorified and ignored. Mothers were told they were “natural caregivers,” but when they needed care themselves, they were left alone.

Early waves of feminism came along and fought hard to break women free from those old roles. Women wanted (and deserved) the right to choose education, careers, and independence. The problem is, in trying to escape the cage of domesticity, motherhood itself got labeled as the problem. This left many women feeling they had to choose between being feminist and being a mother. Between being empowered and being nurturing. Between having an identity and being swallowed by motherhood.

Matricentric Feminism is the bridge. It says, “No more either-or.” You can be both a mother and a feminist. You can love your kids, love yourself, and still want more from this world.

The Principles of Matricentric Feminism

This movement is about changing how we see mothers and how we structure the world around them. Let me break it down into a few key ideas.

1. Center Mothers’ Lived Experience

We start with listening. Really listening. What do mothers need to thrive? Time, rest, community, healthcare that actually understands their bodies, and workplaces that don’t punish them for having children.

When we center mothers’ voices, we learn what’s broken — and how to fix it.

2. Value Care as Real Work

Care work is invisible labor. It’s what keeps families, neighborhoods, and entire economies running. Yet it’s rarely paid or respected. Matricentric Feminism says care is not charity. It’s essential infrastructure.

3. Recognize Matrescence

Matrescence is the transformation a woman goes through when she becomes a mother. It’s as real as adolescence. Your hormones shift, your brain rewires, your priorities change. But society doesn’t treat it that way. It’s like we expect women to go from birth to business casual in six weeks.

This framework honors matrescence as a life-altering transition that deserves time, compassion, and support.

4. Liberation Is Collective

NO MOTHER IS FREE UNTIL ALL MOTHERS ARE FREE.

When we lift up mothers, we lift up everyone. Better care for mothers means healthier families, more stable communities, and a more humane world.

5. Intersectionality Matters

Not all motherhood looks the same. Race, class, disability, sexuality, and access shape how motherhood is experienced. True matricentric feminism makes space for all mothers, not just the privileged few.

What It Looks Like in Real Life

So what does all of this actually mean? It’s one thing to have ideas. It’s another to live them.

Matricentric Feminism isn’t an abstract concept. It’s what happens when we stop treating motherhood as a private choice and start recognizing it as a shared societal responsibility. It’s about creating a world that doesn’t just celebrate babies but truly supports the people raising them.

It starts with maternal healthcare that values both the mother and the baby. We need care that doesn’t only measure success by a healthy newborn, but also by a healthy, supported mother. Prenatal care should include mental health check-ins, honest conversations about birth options, parenting classes, postpartum planning, and emotional support, not just quick appointments focused on the fundal height and fetal heart rate.

Then comes comprehensive postpartum care that lasts beyond six weeks. Real postpartum care continues for years. It means regular check-ins for mental and physical health, pelvic floor support, lactation guidance, and care for sexual and hormonal changes. It also means not pathologizing normal postpartum emotions. Feeling tired, overwhelmed, or uncertain doesn’t always mean you’re “broken.” Sometimes (oftentimes) it means you’re human and that the system isn’t meeting your needs.

We also need paid family leave and paid childcare so mothers don’t have to choose between their income and their children’s wellbeing. These are not luxuries. They’re essential parts of how we make sure families survive and thrive.

Add to that access to affordable housing, food, and education. Maternal wellbeing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. You can’t talk about mental health without talking about stability and security. A mother can’t rest or recover when she’s worried about rent, groceries, or losing her job.

Workplaces must offer accommodations and flexibility that make sense. That means paid leave, flexible schedules, and an end to the silent penalties mothers face for having children. Being a mother should not come at the cost of your professional identity. A workplace that punishes mothers is one that punishes the future.

And through all of this, we must treat mental health as part of maternal health, not as a separate issue. We need to stop calling mothers “hormonal” or “emotional” and start seeing them as people navigating one of life’s biggest transformations.

Matricentric Feminism in practice looks like communities that value mothers, partners who share the mental and physical load, healthcare providers who listen, and leaders who understand that supporting mothers is an investment in everyone’s future.

And maybe most of all, it looks like mothers themselves speaking up and saying, “This isn’t working, and we deserve better.” Because that’s how change begins.

Why This Matters Now

I work with mothers every day who feel like they’re drowning. They are tired, stretched thin, and carrying the weight of a world that doesn’t seem to notice. Many of them wouldn’t call themselves feminists. They just know something feels off.

That feeling? That bone-deep exhaustion and invisible frustration? That’s what happens when society builds everything around productivity, not care.We live in a time when mothers are expected to work like they don’t have kids and parent like they don’t have jobs. We are told to “self-care” our way out of burnout while the systems that caused it stay exactly the same.

Matricentric Feminism calls that out. It says the problem isn’t you. The problem is the structure.

And the good news is, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. You start to realize how deeply the culture undervalues motherhood, and how powerful mothers could be if they stopped apologizing for taking up space.

The Personal Side

I’ll be honest. I didn’t start out using words like “matricentric feminism.” I came to it after searching for a way to process my own mothering and seeking better ways to support the mothers I care for professionally.

I saw how medical systems rushed women through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care. I saw how we praised mothers for “doing it all” when what we really meant was “doing it alone.” I saw how even well-meaning feminist spaces often forgot about mothers entirely.

I realized that if feminism didn’t include motherhood, it was missing half the picture.

Matricentric Feminism gave me the language for what I already knew in my bones. That motherhood is a social, emotional, and political experience. That care is not weakness. That mothers are not the problem, they are the solution.

How to Join the Movement

You don’t need to read academic journals or start marching in the streets to be part of this movement. You can start right where you are.

Ask harder questions about how mothers are treated in your community. Listen without judgment when another mother opens up. Support policies that make care visible, like paid leave, better maternal healthcare, and childcare access. Stop apologizing for needing help. Care is not a failure. It’s human.

Every small shift matters. The world changes when mothers start believing that their experiences are not just personal struggles but social issues worth addressing.

Reimagining Feminism Through Motherhood

Here’s the truth: Matricentric Feminism doesn’t compete with feminism. It completes it.

When we center mothers, we start to repair what’s broken. We begin to value care, connection, and humanity again. We stop pretending motherhood is a private problem and start treating it as a public priority. So maybe you’ve never called yourself a feminist before. Maybe that word still feels strange or complicated. That’s okay. You don’t have to love the label to believe in the message.

If you’ve ever thought, “This system isn’t working for mothers,” congratulations …you’re already part of the movement.

When mothers rise, everyone rises. And the world we build from that truth? That’s my kind of feminism.

Dawn Moore, CNM, WHNP, PMHNP
Founder of Matricentric Health & Well Care

I’m a Mom of four with 19 years of mothering experience and a Certified Nurse Midwife, Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner, and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, supporting mothers for over a decade. My work bridges modern medicine, mental health, and matricent

ric feminism to reimagine how mothers are cared for. Through Matricentric Health & Well Care, I help women move through every season of motherhood, from preconception and postpartum to perimenopause and beyond, with compassion, education, and community.

My mission is simple: to create a world where mothers are seen, heard, and supported, and where care is rooted in humanity, not profit.