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UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Racial Distinctions in Middle-Class Motherhood: Ideologies and Practices of African-American Middle-Class Mothers Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4t10c8zf Author Dow, Dawn Marie Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Racial Distinctions in Middle-Class Motherhood: Ideologies and Practices of African-American Middle-Class Mothers By Dawn Marie Dow A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Raka Ray, Chair Professor Barrie Thorne Professor Evelyn Nakano Glenn Fall 2012 Abstract Racial Distinctions in Middle-Class Motherhood: Ideologies and Practices of African-American Middle-Class Mothers by Dawn Marie Dow Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, Berkeley Professor Raka Ray, Chair My dissertation examines how intersections of racial identity, class and gender influence the cultural expectations and decisions of African-American middle-class mothers regarding work, family and parenting. Through this research I challenge three dominant sets of ideologies present in family, work and parenting scholarship. First, I challenge the widespread acceptance of the Intensive Mothering ideology that views mothers as principally responsible for raising their children within a nuclear family context. Second, I challenge the conflict paradigm that assumes a mother’s decisions about work and family can be captured in a competing spheres framework. This framework assumes that mothers who allot more time to work have a stronger “work devotion” and those who allot more time to family have a stronger “family devotion.” Third, I challenge the assumption that middle-class parents are primarily influenced by their class status when parenting their children and primarily use the concerted cultivation parenting approach. This approach emphasizes encouraging children’s logical reasoning, developing their intellectual and physical skills through organized enrichment activities and viewing educational and other institutions in society from an entitlements and service oriented perspective. Using sixty in-depth semi-structured interviews of African-American middle-class mothers living in the San Francisco Bay Area I investigate three sets of questions. First, how do these mothers approach family, work and parenting? Second, what explains their distinctive strategies? Third, how does this case of mothers help to illuminate the range of mothering and parenting ideals and practices influencing all mothers’ choices and what are the consequences of not conforming to dominant ideals and practices? My findings suggest that the ideologies that dominate family and work life scholarship do not adequately capture the cultural prerogatives of all mothers. Specifically, African-American middle-class mothers are influenced by a different orientation to mothering and parenting that I call the “Integrated Mothering Ideology.” This ideology assumes that 1) childcare is a mother-centered, but extended-family and community- supported activity, 2) working outside of the home is a duty of motherhood and 3) mothers consistently consider issues related to racial identity, class and gender when making parenting decisions with the aim towards fostering specific orientations to African-American middle-class identity. Overall my findings demonstrate that middle-class mothers’ approaches to managing work and family are influenced by racially situated identities, ideologies and practices that are supported by specific social, economic, cultural and structural circumstances. 1 Table of Contents List of Tables ii Acknowledgements iii Chapter One Introduction: African-American Middle-Class Mothers’ Perspectives on Family, Work and Parenting 1 Chapter Two Cultural Distinctions in Motherhood: Extended Family Mothering in Contemporary African-American Middle-Class Mothers’ Lives 19 Chapter Three Integrated Devotions: Negotiating Archetypes and Stereotypes of African-American Womanhood 46 Chapter Four Cultivating Consciousness: Crossing, Policing and Transcending Raced, Classed and Gendered Borders 75 Chapter Five Conclusion: Integrated Mothering- An Alternative Ideology of Family, Work and Parenting 104 References 110 i List of Tables Table 1.1 A Comparison of Ideologies of Motherhood 3 Table 1.2 Percentage Change in Population in Bay Area 12 Cities From 2000 to 2010 Census Table 1.3 Sample Characteristics 14 Table 4.1 Intersectional Approaches to Parenting 101 Table 5.1 Integrated Mothering Ideology 105 ii Acknowledgements Completing this dissertation, while raising twin infants, then toddlers and now school- aged children was at times challenging, but was always worthwhile and I would do it again in an instant. It is often said that it takes a village to raise a child, but I think it also takes a village to support a graduate student as she completes her dissertation. These acknowledgements are intended to reflect what has been an undeniable truth for me throughout this process; writing may, at times, be a solitary process but completing a project of this scope and depth cannot be accomplished alone. I deeply appreciate the community of scholars and friends who provided me with generous feedback, thoughtful criticism and emotional and intellectual support throughout my research and writing. Without their support, their belief in and respect for me as a scholar, and a person in the larger world with non-academic demands, this dissertation would not have been possible. I must start by thanking the chair of my dissertation committee, Raka Ray. From the beginning she believed in this project and called it the dissertation she wanted someone to write. Raka challenged me to show how my research not only diversified what we know about work, family and parenting by giving voice to the experiences of African-American middle-class mothers, but she also encouraged me to accept the challenge of exposing fundamental assumptions within that body of research. Despite being the advisor of numerous other dissertations, throughout this process Raka showed that she cared about my intellectual and professional development as well as my life outside of graduate school (as if these can be easily separated). I also received invaluable insight and support from my committee members, Barrie Thorne and Evelyn Nakano Glenn. Barrie pushed me to explore the complexity in the lives of the mothers I studied. She encouraged me to honor their shared and divergent experiences and to be precise in the concepts I was using to describe them. The many conversations I had with her in her office and house enhanced my analysis. I also appreciate the care she took in reading my work, her detailed feedback, and the interest she took in my intellectual and personal life. I thank Evelyn Nakano Glenn for her contributions to the intellectual foundation of this dissertation. Her research on mothering greatly informed this work. Evelyn pushed me to consider how changing social constraints and opportunities shape the life trajectories and expectations of mothers. In addition to my formal dissertation committee, I am fortunate to have had others at UC Berkeley take an interest in my dissertation research and my intellectual development. Two years before I completed my dissertation I became a graduate fellow at what is now called the Center for the Study of Societal Issues (CSSI). Through this fellowship I had the opportunity to benefit from the wisdom and expertise of the three program directors and my cohort of graduate fellows. David Minkus and Deborah Lustig deserve special thanks. They carefully read, provided critical feedback and pushed me to sharpen my analysis in what would ultimately become the introduction to my dissertation. Christine Trost read each of the chapters of this dissertation, often at very early stages. She was extremely generous and honest with her feedback and her advice contributed to the overall quality of my dissertation. I also thank my cohort of fellows: Nicole Lindahl, Willow Amam, Alina Polyakova, Karin Martin, Naomi Hsu, Lindsey Dillon and iii Nu-Anh Tran, who helped me ensure my findings remained clear and understandable to a broad range of audiences. The seeds of this dissertation began both in Laura Enriquez’s interviewing class and the master’s thesis I completed under the guidance and supervision of Sandra Smith. Each of these individuals contributed to my early intellectual development and to this research. I will always appreciate Laura’s call in the classroom to first consider what I found valuable in a scholarly work before preceding to my critique of it. I thank Sandra for being one of the first to see the value in focusing a study on African-American middle-class mothers and for indelibly marking me with a desire to identify the stasis, disruption and resolution in my research. While neither Irene Bloemraad or Catherine Albiston were directly involved in my dissertation, on multiple occasions each gave me invaluable advice. I feel extremely lucky to have benefited from their guidance as I embarked on this research, and for their advice regarding my professional development. Gloria Chun also took an interest in my research and provided me with several opportunities to share it with a broader audience. I also benefited from
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