Image of Searching for Balance but Finding Guilt A Story of Academic Mothers in South Africa

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Searching for Balance but Finding Guilt A Story of Academic Mothers in South Africa

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This article draws on the data from a larger ethnographic study which tracked the lives of three academics who had just become mothers. In it, I respond to the question I have repeatedly encountered, in a variety of forms: How can I be an academic and a mother without going insane? Two linked thematic issues emerge from the data: (a) the search for balance between academic work and motherhood is elusive; and (b) academic mothers are torn apart by guilt. In using Grosz’s idea that feminists need to consistently critique and construct, I make a case for academic mothers seeking to ‘let go’ in order to ‘let in’ more liberatory ways of being ‘academic’ and ‘mother’. I argue too that Grosz’s idea should be extended to include ways of destructing paralysing notions of what it means to be an academic and a mother, simultaneously.

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Publication Information
: Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa.,
Number of Pages
-
ISBN
-
Language
English
ISSN
0851–7762
Subject(s)
South Africa
Academic Mothers
Finding Guilt
Ethnographic
Motherhood
Feminists
Description
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Citation
Other Information
Type
Article
Part Of Series
JHEA/RESA;Vol. 10, No. 2, 2012, pp. 139–156
DOI Identifier
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