Biographies of Roma Mothering in Contemporary Czechia. Exploring Tapestries of Multi-ethnic Gendered Identity in a Marginalised Social Position
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | The chapter is based on a thematic narrative analysis of 25 in-depth biographical interviews conducted in Czechia with Roma mothers in 2018 within the larger scope of the international project ‘Inclusive Education and Social Support to Tackle Inequalities in Society’. The focus is on the constructions of the multiple roles and identities that Czech Roma mothers experience while living in highly marginalised contexts with regard to their ethnic minority and low-income backgrounds. Their life narratives reveal patterns of mothering in their families of origin; how they were, step by step, becoming mothers (physically, socially and emotionally); what it means to them to be a mother; and how they reflect on their own socialisation and the imposition of their socialisation on the daughters they raise, assuming that they too will be becoming mothers one day. The various forms of mothering experiences intertwined in their biographical stories are sometimes in line with more traditional family role models, whereas, at other times, they represent Roma women’s complicated efforts to become emancipated from a larger family, poverty and social marginalisation. The narratives present the symptomatic struggle between the traditional expectations and changing social conditions in which the mothers live. This struggle is nevertheless highly influenced by the racialised discourse that prevails in contemporary Czechia. These complex intersectional structures are inscribed into Roma mothers’ experiences of becoming and being a mother. Thus, the authors present the subjective narrative understanding of mothering in the context of the social position of Czech Roma women and their notions of mothering in the private sphere while taking the wider social context and narrative meaning-making into account. |
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