What does it mean to be a mother? Why does being a mum change the way society sees you? Helen Charman talks to author and journalist Eliane Glaser about the politics of motherhood from the 1970s to the 2010s, from the policing of breastfeeding to the cost of childcare, from Women’s Liberation to austerity, and women's fights for an alternative future.

'With ease and precision, Charman examines all the waged and unwaged labour that create mothers as well as the political processes that produce their vexed relationship to the British state... sharp and critical – and a tender love letter to her own mother’s knees' – Lola Olufemi

Helen Charman teaches English at Clare College, Cambridge. Her critical writing has been published in the Guardian, The White Review, Another Gaze, and The Stinging Fly among others. As a poet, Charman was shortlisted for the White Review Poet's Prize and has published four poetry pamphlets. She volunteers as a birth companion in Glasgow.

Eliane Glaser is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster. Her published works include Motherhood: A Manifesto; Anti-Politics; and Get Real: How To Tell It Like It Is In a World of Illusions.

Photo Helen Charman © Robin Christian