Class and Mothering

Working Class

There is no single accepted definition of working class: typically it is defined in opposition to the middle class by characteristics such as employment in a trade or semi-skilled occupation and coming from a family where college was not an expectation for every child. For women, working-class occupations include low-level, white-collar jobs such as clerks and secretaries (because of the low wages and lack of autonomy) as well as “pink collar” occupations [Page 223]like cosmetology and blue-collar occupations such as factory work. Most working-class families have less income and social capital at their disposal than middle-class families. The boundaries between upper-class, middle-class, working-class, and poor families are fuzzy and sometimes permeable, but the concept of class is integral to everyday thinking and social research on mothering.

Impact of Class on Mothering

Women's educational backgrounds, occupational conditions, and economic resources interweave with their fixed characteristics and life experiences to shape their child-rearing strategies. Not all aspects of mothering are affected by class. However, women's access to resources shapes their sense and fulfillment of motherhood. More specifically, women's location in the class hierarchy impacts mothering through the availability of family forms, the ability to provide economic necessities and material comforts, performance of parenting styles, and investment in education.

Family Forms

Not everyone has equal access to the broad range of family forms. Some restrictions on family formation are legally recognized, such as legislation prohibiting gays and lesbians from marrying or adopting children. Beyond state policy, class also influences one's ability to form families, and thus family structure. For example, poor, inner-city, African American women are the most likely to live in single-parent households. For young urban black mothers who wish to marry, they may be unable to find a mate living in neighborhoods with high levels of unemployment, incarceration, and mortality, which results in a shortage of marriageable men. Women's choice of partnering or remaining single is not solely an individual decision; it is shaped by their structural position in a class hierarchy.

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