A CONTEXTUAL ACCOUNT OF MOTHERHOOD

Authors

  • Kerry Frizelle University of KwaZulu-Natal
  • Gabrielle Kell University of KwaZulu-Natal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17159//2309-8708/2010/n39a4

Abstract

The data for this paper was originally collected and analysed by the second author for her master’s thesis. The first author (the second author’s supervisor) has re-visited and re-worked the data and analysis for the purposes of this paper. The data was collected during two focus groups with six, white middle-class South African mothers. The study adopted a feminist method of analysis, the voice-relational method, with the aim of opening up for exploration the way in which mothers’ everyday experiences of mothering are impacted on by the specific social context in which they are embedded. The voice-relational method of analysis, based on the principles of relational ontology, proved a useful tool to explore the way in which individual mothers’ experiences are informed by their location within particular relational, structural and cultural contexts. The analysis reveals the way in which race, class, sexual orientation and gender intersect with dominant ideologies of motherhood to inform the experiences of suburban, middle-class women negotiating, within a complex set of relationships, what it is
to be a mother.

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Author Biographies

Kerry Frizelle, University of KwaZulu-Natal

School of Psychology
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Howard College
Durban 4041

Gabrielle Kell, University of KwaZulu-Natal

School of Psychology
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Howard College
Durban 4041

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Published

2025-02-26

How to Cite

Frizelle, K., & Kell, G. (2025). A CONTEXTUAL ACCOUNT OF MOTHERHOOD. PINS-Psychology in Society, 39(1), 26–44. https://doi.org/10.17159//2309-8708/2010/n39a4

Issue

Vol. 39 No. 1 (2010)

Section

Articles

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