Changing motherhood and the shifting social networks-of-care within black families in the post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

Although motherhood differs from one context to another along, among others,  cultural, racial, class, time lines, or an intersection of one or more of these, the  hegemonic Western social construction and conceptualization of motherhood  remains dominant. This paper draws from 37 feminist interviews and observations of both mothers and fathers who are managers in a government department and a parastatal. It seeks to address the following question: “how has mothering practice evolved among black, indigenous, middle-class, Limpopo Province families in the  post-apartheid era”? The study demonstrates that the practice of mothering is not necessarily limited to the mother but is performed within a ‘network-of-care’. It  reveals the changing patterns of mothering practices and networks of care with the  rise of black-middle-class families and their movement from cohesive to mobile  society. Alongside the dis-embedment of families from their networks of care has been an unprecedented increase in paid domestic labour among black African  families, as an alternative coping strategy for employed mothers. However, the kinship system remains a useful resource alongside paid domestic labour in  facilitating work-family reconciliation. Therefore this article shows the collaboration  of familial support and paid domestic work in the facilitation of work-family  reconciliation for working mothers. Furthermore, the article also demonstrates a  crossover or convergence of domestic work and family support, where some  members of the kinship system are paid to do house-chores and childcare.  Moreover, the data illuminates the genderedness and reciprocity in such support  between mothers and their extended families.