A Southern encounter: maternal body work and low-income mothers in South Africa
Stumbitz, Bianca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6399-9507 and Jaga, Ameeta
(2020)
A Southern encounter: maternal body work and low-income mothers in South Africa.
Gender, Work and Organization, 27
(6)
.
pp. 1485-1500.
ISSN 0968-6673
[Article]
(doi:10.1111/gwao.12527)
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Abstract
This paper explores the maternal body work practices of black low-income mothers from resource-poor urban spaces in South Africa. Using Southern Theory to open our analytical lens, we recognise that location has implications for how we understand the embodiment of gender and the lactating body in the global South. We argue that maternal body work, as one form of gendered embodiment, must be understood in a postcolonial landscape where histories of colonisation and indigenous gender orders continue to shape how women respond to work conditions and how they manage the competing demands of work and breastfeeding. Our analysis from 51 in-depth interviews conducted in Cape Town, demonstrates that maternal body work practices are interpreted through the entanglement of embodiment and work and non-work spaces. By emphasising contextual specificities relating to low-income worker’s living, working and family realities, we advance studies on maternal body work and employment from the global South.
Item Type: | Article |
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Keywords (uncontrolled): | breastfeeding, embodiment, low income, maternal body work, Southern Theory |
Research Areas: | A. > Business School > Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research (CEEDR) |
Item ID: | 30852 |
Notes on copyright: | © 2020 The Authors. Gender, Work & Organization published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Useful Links: | |
Depositing User: | Bianca Stumbitz |
Date Deposited: | 25 Aug 2020 15:16 |
Last Modified: | 29 Nov 2022 18:09 |
URI: | https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/id/eprint/30852 |
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