THE CRADLE AND THE GUN

This work is situated in context of apparent dichotomy between motherhood and war. The research explores how Maoist women managed motherhood alongside the armed conflict waged by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-CPN). Examination of Maoist women's motherhood experiences shows that they experienced motherhood as resonating between two different patriarchal structures: the CPN (Maoist) party and Nepali society. As they negotiated motherhood, they developed a series of strategies to reconcile contradictory pressures on their mothering practices.