(no paper is attached to this workshop)

This paper challenged myths of the mad women’s’ right to parent by dominate sainest culture. It took a feminist rights approach to the issue of mothering with a psychiatric disAbility and looks at how parenting with a psychiatric label is viewed in Canadian politics. The image of the “unstable” mother is central to these politics which is rooted in an oppressive history of mad persons as dependants and not in a caring role. This paper argued that the omission of psychiatrized woman’s’ rights to parent in Canada is institutionalized discrimination. Further, it addressed issues of poverty and isolation that often characterizes families with psychiatrized family members and views welfare state restructuring as an imperative to ameliorating this issue. The paper focused on access to resources for women who experience madness and choose to parent. The paper challenged assumptions and constructed boundaries of mainstream culture towards the mad mother’s right to parent through a feminist disAbility rights framework.