Abstract
Motherhood experience within African families is influenced by multiple layers of intersecting factors such as race, gender and class, political changes, socio-economic and geographical mobility. Motherhood expectations and practice have become complex, discursive, and paradoxical. The chapter affirms the parallel coexistence but further unveils contradictions and conflicts between “traditional” and “modern” values within mothering normative expectations as well as between the normative expectations and practice. Mothering practice involves providing or co-providing, therefore the workplace is deemed an important aspect of mothering given that it determines the availability of the mother to perform her mothering role. The change has been influenced by especially the improvement of women’s status mainly due to the improving levels of education and improved employment mobility of mothers. The chapter further shows incongruences between the family and workplace domains that have resulted in work-family conflict. The chapter illustrates the shift in mothering networks-of-care based on the declining kinship bonds over the years due to increased “geographical mobility.” Paid domestic workers have gained greater prominence within this network. However, even with the considerable change, traditional normative expectations and beliefs continue to shape the cultural thinking on motherhood.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akujobi, R. (2011). Motherhood in African literature and culture. Comparative Literature and Culture, 13(1). Viewed 12 February 2016, viewed from http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=170&context=clcweb
Amoateng, A. Y., Heaton, T. B., & Kalule-Sabiti, I. (2007). The living arrangements in South Africa. In A. Y. Amoateng & B. H. Heaton (Eds.), Families and household in post-apartheid South Africa: Socio-demographic perspectives (pp. 27–42). Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2016.
Aryee, S. (2005). The work-family Interface in urban sub-Saharan Africa: A theoretical analysis. In S. A. Y. Poelmans (Ed.), Work and family: An international research perspective. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Batisai, K. (2017). Pushing the limits of motherhood: Narratives of older women in rural Zimbabwe. African Studies, 76(1), 44–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2017.12805667.
Berhane, H. Y., Ekström, E. C., Jirström, M., Berhane, Y., Turner, C., & Alsanius, B. W. (2018). Mixed blessings: A qualitative exploration of mothers’ experience of child care and feeding in the rapidly urbanizing city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. PLoS One, 13(11), e0207685. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207685.
Bray, R., et al. (2010). Growing up in the new South Africa: Childhood and adolescence in post-apartheid. Cape Town: HSRC.
Campbell, C. (1990). The township family and women’s struggles. Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 6, 1–22.
Charles, N. (2002). Gender in modern Britain. Oxford: University Press.
Charles, N., & Harris, C. (2008). Families in transition: Social change, family formation and kin relationships. Policy Press: University of Bristol.
Charmes, J. (2006). A review of empirical evidence on time use in Africa from UN-sponsored surveys. In C. M. Blacken & Q. Wodon (Eds.), Gender time use and poverty in sub-saharan africa Ed. Wanshington, DC: World Bank.
Cherryl, W. (2007). Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth century South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, 21(3), 417–437.
Chilisa, B., & Ntseane, G. (2010). Resisting dominant discourses: Implications of indigenous, African feminist theory and methods for gender and education research. Gender and Education, 22(6), 617–632. Taylor & Francis.
Chisale, S. S. (2018). Disabled motherhood in an African community. Towards an African theology of disability. In die skriflig, 52(1), a2375. https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v52i1.2375.
Chobokoane, N., & Budlender, D. (2002/4). Activities over time: Further analysis of the time use survey. Occasional Paper: Statistics South Africa.
Christian, B. (1994). An angle of seeing: Motherhood. In E. N. Glenn, L. R. Chang, & L. R. Forcey (Eds.), Buchi Emecheta’s joys of motherhood and Alice Walker’s Meridian, mothering: Ideology, experience, and agency (pp. 95–120). London: Routledge.
Clark, G. (1999). Mothering, work and gender in urban Asante ideology and practice: American Anthropologist, New series. Blackwell Publishing. 101(4): 717–729.
Diquinzio, P. (1999). The impossibility of motherhood: Feminism, individualism and the problem of mothering. London: Routledge.
Eisenstein, Z. (1981). The radical future of liberal feminism. London: Longman.
Frahm-Arp, M. (2010). Professional women in Pentecostal charismatic churches (Studies of religion in Africa SRA 38). Leiden: Boston Brill.
Frone, M. R. (2003). Work-family balance. In J. C. Quick & L. E. Tetrick (EDS.), Handbook for occupational psychology. Washigton, DC: American Psychology Association.
Gittins, D. (1992). Narrow definitions of culture: The case of early motherhood. In L. P. MacDowel (Eds.), Defining women: Social institutions and gender divisions. Cambridge Polity press in association with the Open University.
Hotchfeld, T. (2008). Influencing…it is our role, it is our duty: How social workers unintentionally reinforce conservative ideas on the family. Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 76, 92–104.
Inglehart, R., & Baker, W. E. (2000). Modernization, cultural change, and the persistence of traditional values. American Sociological Review, 65, 19–51.
Inglehart, R., & Norris, P. (2003). Rising tide: Gender equality and cultural change around the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jeannes, L., & Shefer, T. (2004). Discourses on motherhood among groups of south African mothers. A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies, 5, 1–20.
Kalule-Sabiti, I., et al. (2007). Family formation and dissolution patterns. In A. Y. Amoateng & B. H. Heaton, T. B. (Eds.), Families and households in post-apartheid South Africa: Socio-demographic perspectives (pp. 89–112). Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Kandiyoti, D. (1988). Gender and society: Bargaining with patriarchy. Sociologists for Women in Society, 2, 274–290.
Keller, H., & Kärtner, J. (2013). Development: The cultural solution of universal developmental tasks. In M. Gelfand, C. Y. Chiu, & Y. Y. Hong (Eds.), Advances in culture and psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 63–116). New York: Oxford University Press.
King, A. J. (2007). Domestic service in post-apartheid South Africa: Deference and disdain. United Kingdom: University of Warwick.
Klarin, M., Proroković, A., & Šimunić, A. (2014). The role of intergenerational transmission of parenting in close relationships of male and female adolescents. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(20), 1821.
Lesejane, D. (2006). Fatherhood from an African cultural perspective. In M. R. Linda & R. Morrell (Eds.), Baba: Men and fatherhood in South Africa (pp. 173–182). Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Magwaza, T. (2003). Perceptions and experiences of motherhood: A study of black and white mothers of Durban, South Africa. Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies, 4, 1–14.
Makaudze, G. (2017). Motherhood in children’s drama: Selected cases from collections on Shona children’s literature. Mousaion, 35(2), 114–128.
Mamabolo, I., Langa, M., & Kiguwa, P. (2009). To be or not to be a mother: Exploring the notion of motherhood among university students. South Africa Journal of Psychology, 39(4), 480–488.
Maqubela, L. N. (2013). An exploration of parenting: Normative expectations and practice and work/life in the post-apartheid South Africa. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Warwick, UK.
Maqubela, L. N. (2016a). Mothering the other: The sacrificial nature of domestic work social in the post-apartheid South Africa. Gender and Behaviour, 14(2), 7225–7234.
Maqubela, L. N. (2016b). Changing motherhood and the shifting social networks-of-care within black families in the post-apartheid South Africa. Gender and Behaviour, 14(2), 7225–7234.
Moore, E. (2013). Transmission and change in South African motherhood: Black mothers in 3 generational cape town families. Journal of South African Studies, 39(1), 151–170.
Moorosi, P. (2007). Creating linkages between private and public: Challenges facing women principals in South Africa. South African Journal of Education, 27(3), 507–521.
Nall, J. A. (2014). Fade to white or stereotype: Patriarchal policy of gender norms in television and filmic representations of childbirth. Gender Questions, 2(1), 12–34.
Ngujiri, F. W. (2007). Painting counter-narrative of African womanhood: Reflections on how my research transformed me. Journal of Research Practice, 3(1), M4.
Oyewumi, O. (2001). Ties that (un)bind: Feminism, sisterhood and other foreign relations. Jenda: Journal of Culture and African Women Studies, 1(1), 1–12.
Oyewumi, O. (2003). Abiyamo: Theorizing African motherhood. Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies, 4, 1–6.
Oyewumi, O. (2016). What gender is motherhood? Changing Yoruba ideals of power, procreation, and identity in the age of modernity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Palamuleni, M., Kalule-Sabiti, I., & Makiwane, M. (2007). Fertility and childbearing in South Africa. In A. Y. Amoateng & B. H. Heaton (Eds.), Families and households in post-apartheid South Africa: Socio-demographic perspectives. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Phillips, L. H. (2011). I am alone. I am a woman. What are my children going to eat? Domestic workers and family networks. South African Review of Sociology, 42(2), 29–44.
Pillay, V. (2007). Academic mothers. Pretoria: UNISA Press.
Poelmans, S., O’Driscoll, M., & Beham, B. (2005). An overview of international research on the work-family interface. In A. Y. Poelmans (Eds.), Work-family: An international research perspective. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. https://doi.org/10.5944/ap.14.2.20024.
Rich, A. (1996). Of woman born: Motherhood as experience and institution. London: Norton.
Seekings, J., & Nattrass, N. (2005). Class, race and inequality in South Africa. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Swartz, S., & Bhana, A. (2009). Teenage tata: Voices of the young fathers in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Taiwo, M. (2004). Motherhood as a source of empowerment of women in yoruba culture. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 13(2), 164–174.
White, C. (1991). Close to home in Johannesburg: Oppression in township households. Agenda: Empoering Women for Gender Equity, 11, 78–89.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Maqubela, L.N. (2021). Gender, Motherhood, and Parenting in Africa. In: Yacob-Haliso, O., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Women's Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28099-4_150
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28099-4_150
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28098-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28099-4
eBook Packages: HistoryReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities