Constructing the “Good Mother”: The Experience of Mothering Ideologies by Work Status

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2-2006

Publication Source

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research

Volume Number

54

Issue Number

7

First Page

509

Last Page

519

Publisher

Springer

ISSN

0360-0025

E-ISSN

1573-2762

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore how mothers construct their worker–parent identity within a cultural context of competing mothering ideologies. We used narrative data from interviews with 95 married mothers with at least 1 child under the age of 5 to compare the construction of intensive mothering expectations by middle-class full-time employed mothers, part-time employed mothers, and at-home mothers. Although previous research has shown that mothers alter work status to live up to intensive mothering expectations, our results show that mothers also alter their construction of intensive mothering expectations to reconcile these demands with their work status choices. The results also suggest that mothers with different employment decisions differ in their construction of Y. Elvin-Nowak and H. Thomsson's (2001) 3 discursive positions—accessibility, happy mother/happy child, and separation of work and home.

Keywords

Motherhood, Work and family Ideology and identity

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