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Feminist Studies

Like Mother, Like Daughter: The Intergenerational Link Between Mother Activists and their Daughters in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

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The concept of motherhood is often paired with notions of nurturing and caretaking, but
it is rarely seen in the context of activism or social and political change. Thus, by researching the
relationship between mother activists and their daughters, this paper delves into the concepts of
how motherhood is perceived through a feminist lens, and what it means to be a mother while
also performing duties as an activist. The research tackles the questions of whether daughters of
mother activists become activists themselves, and how they were affected by their mother’s
activism during adolescence, if at all.
A narrative approach was used for data collection: one-on-one qualitative interviews with
seven women were used to collect this data. The interviews were with mothers who were
activists themselves, as well as adult daughters of mother activists. Amongst the sample of seven
women, there were two mother-daughter pairs. The interviews yielded fascinating responses,
such as the fact that daughters of mothers often did not feel neglected, and instead felt rather
apathetic towards their mothers’ activism as children. As they got older, however, the research
yielded that they started to understand and respect their mother’s work more. Also, the research
showed that all daughters of mother activists became activists themselves, proving a strong
intergenerational link regarding political ideologies and outlooks regarding activism. This study
took place in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, a country that was specific to research due to the
legacy of Apartheid and mothers in activism

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Publication Information
: SIT Digital Collections.,
Number of Pages
-
ISBN
-
Language
English
ISSN
https://digitalcollections.sit.e
Subject(s)
South Africa
Feminism
Activism
Inter-generational activism
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Citation
Other Information
Type
Thesis
Part Of Series
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DOI Identifier
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