Stepmother
Female non-biological parent married to a preexisting parent.
A stepmother (also called a stepmom, stepmum, or stepmommy) is a woman who is married to someone’s existing parent but is not that person’s biological parent. The children from her spouse’s earlier relationships are referred to as her stepchildren. A stepmother-in-law is the stepmother of a person’s spouse.
In culture, stepparents—especially stepmothers—can face social difficulties because of the stigma tied to the “evil stepmother” character. According to Morello, the historical use of this character has created a lasting negative image that harms stepmothers today, often damaging their self-esteem.
In fiction, stepmothers are frequently shown as cruel and wicked. This evil stepmother figure appears often in fairy tales, with famous examples including *Cinderella*, *Snow White*, and *Hansel and Gretel*. Stepdaughters are her most common targets, but stepdaughter/stepson pairs also suffer, as do stepsons alone—for instance, in *The Juniper Tree*, or in *East of the Sun and West of the Moon*, where a stepson is victimized for refusing to marry his stepsister. Sometimes stepdaughters-in-law are the victims, as in *The Boys with the Golden Stars*. In some tales, like Giambattista Basile’s *La Gatta Cennerentola* or the Danish *Green Knight*, the stepmother wins marriage by charming her stepdaughter, then becomes cruel once she has secured it.
In certain stories, a stepdaughter’s escape through marriage does not free her. After her first child is born, the stepmother may try to kill the new mother and replace her with her own daughter, making herself stepmother to the next generation. This happens in *The Wonderful Birch*, *Brother and Sister*, and *The Three Little Men in the Wood*; only by stopping the stepmother’s plan—and usually executing her—does the story reach a happy ending. In the Korean folktale *Janghwa Hongryeon jeon*, the stepmother kills her own stepdaughters.
Many tales with evil stepmothers highlight the hostility between stepmother and stepchild by having the child succeed with help from the dead mother. This motif appears from Norse mythology, where Svipdagr wakes his mother Gróa from the grave to learn how to complete a task set by his stepmother, to fairy tales like the Brothers Grimm’s *Cinderella*, where Aschenputtel gets her clothes from a tree growing on her mother’s grave; the Russian *Vasilissa the Beautiful*, where Vasilissa is ai
- field
- Familial role, folklore, cultural studies
- known_for
- Non-biological maternal figure; frequent portrayal as wicked in fairy tales
- related_roles
- Stepmother-in-law, stepchild, stepparent
Lore & Background
In fiction, stepmothers are often portrayed as wicked and evil, a character type heavily featured in fairy tales such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Hansel and Gretel. Stepdaughters are the most common victims, though stepsons and stepdaughters-in-law also suffer. In some tales, the stepmother wins marriage by ingratiating herself with the stepdaughter, then becomes cruel. After the stepdaughter's marriage and childbirth, the stepmother may attempt to murder the new mother and replace her with her own daughter, as in The Wonderful Birch and Brother and Sister. The hostility between stepmother and stepchild is often underscored by the child receiving aid from the dead mother, a motif appearing from Norse mythology to tales like Vasilissa the Beautiful and the Malay Bawang Putih Bawang Merah.
Reader's Guide
The stepmother figure is significant for her dual role in culture: as a real familial relationship and as a potent literary archetype. The 'evil stepmother' stereotype, rooted in fairy tales, has created a lasting stigma that affects real stepmothers' self-esteem. Historically, many women died in childbirth, husbands remarried, and new stepmothers competed with first-marriage children for resources, which may explain the conflict in tales. However, loving stepmothers also appear in fiction, such as in Kevin and Kell and the Disney film Enchanted, which challenges the notion that all stepmothers are evil. The ubiquity of the wicked stepmother has made it a frequent theme of revisionist fantasy, from Tanith Lee's Red as Blood to Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle. The figure also appears in Chinese tales of family, where both wicked and exemplary stepmothers are depicted, the latter sometimes preferring the stepson to her own child out of duty.
Did You Know?
- The Brothers Grimm changed the villain from a biological mother to a stepmother in later editions of Snow White and Hansel and Gretel, possibly to mitigate the story's violence.
- In some fairy tales, such as The Juniper Tree, the stepmother's hostility is overtly the desire to secure the inheritance of her children.
- The Icelandic fairy tale The Horse Gullfaxi and the Sword Gunnfoder features a rare good stepmother who aids the prince like a fairy godmother.
- In the Korean folktale Janghwa Hongryeon jeon, the stepmother kills her own stepdaughters.
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