Modern ideologies of âgood motheringâ demand the resources and family configurations primarily available to privileged mothers. Though less often explored than dynamics of race and class, mothers with disabilities are among those women who have been regarded as unsuitable for the responsibilities demanded of mothers in advanced industrial societies. Through interviews and focus groups conducted with mothers who have sensory and/or physical disabilities, I examine how women with disabilities interpret their identities as mothers in relation to modern ideals of good mothering. I find that motherhood offered some participants a path to feminine legitimacy often denied women with disabilities. Yet, because they are simultaneously regarded as less-than-ideal mothers, participants engaged in interpretive strategies including upholding and expanding dominant standards of good mothering, as well as reframing and rejecting elements of this mothering logic. Some of these mothers also engaged in culturework, performing identity work to strengthen their childrenâs social justice perspectives on disability and other forms of inequity.
Angela Frederick is Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at UTEP. Dr. Frederick is a qualitative researcher, whose interests include gender, disability, race/ethnicity, and intersectionality. She is currently working on research projects exploring the experiences of people with disabilities who experience intersecting inequalities, as well as the experiences and perspectives of under-represented students in the stem pipeline.
Date: April 16, 2019
Time: 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Date: April 16, 2019
Time: 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM