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Articles · Vol. 10 No 2 (2012): Revue de l’enseignement supérieur en Afrique · Pages pp. 139–156

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

Vol. 10 · 2012 N°2 Revue de l’enseignement supérieur en Afrique JHEA

Résumé

Ce papier s’appuie sur les données d’une vaste étude ethnographique qui a suivi la vie de trois nouvelles mamans universitaires. Dans cet article, je tente de répondre à la question qui m’a été posée à plusieurs reprises, sous différentes de formes, au cours des présentations du livre : « comment puis- jeêtreuniversitaireetmère,sansperdrelatête? ».Deuxquestionsthématiques liées découlent des données : a) la recherche de l’équilibre entre le travail universitaire et la maternité est insaisissable ; et b) les mères universitaires sont déchirées par la culpabilité. En utilisant l’idée de Grosz selon laquelle les féministes doivent constamment critiquer et construire, je prends le cas des mères universitaires qui cherchent à « lâcher prise », afin d’ « adopter » plus de moyens émancipateurs pour être universitaire et mère. Je démontre aussi que l’idée de Grosz devrait être élargie pour inclure les moyens de détruire les notions qui bloquent la signification d’être universitaire et mère.

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

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.

Mots-clés

Balance Mére Story of Academic

Statistiques

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Citations

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Biographie de l'auteur/ice

  • Venitha Pillay

    University of Pretoria.

Références

  1. Bassett, R.H., 2005, ‘The Life I didn’t Know I Wanted’, in Bassett, R.H., ed.,ng and Professing: Balancing Family Work with an Academic Career, (pp.217- 224), Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press.
  2. Cloete, N. and Bunting, I., 2000, Higher Education Transformation: Assessing Performance in South Africa, Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET).
  3. Cooey, P., 1999, ‘“Ordinary Mother” as Oxymoron: the Collusion of Theory, Theory and Politics in the Undermining of Mothers’, in Hanigsberg, J. and Ruddick, S., eds., Mother Troubles: Rethinking Contemporary Maternal Dilemmas, (pp. 229-249), Boston: Beacon Press.
  4. Edwards, R., 1993, Mature Women Students: Separating or Connecting Family and Education, London: Taylor and Francis.
  5. Evans, E. and Grant, C., eds., 2009, Mama Phd: Women Write about Motherhood and Academic Life, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
  6. Foucault, M., 1997, Society Must be Defended: Lectures at the College de France 1975-76, Translated by David Macey. New York: Picador.
  7. Grosz, E., 1990, ‘Contemporary Theories of Power and Subjectivity’, in Gunew, S., ed., Feminist Knowledge: Critique and Construct, (pp.59-120), London and New York: Routledge.
  8. Grossman, H. Y. and Chester, N. L., 1990, The Experience and Meaning of Work in Women’s Lives, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  9. Lather, P., 2007, Getting Lost: Feminist Efforts Toward a Double(d) Science, USA: State University of New York Press.
  10. Lupton, D., 2000, ‘“A Love/Hate Relationship”: The Ideals and Experiences of First- time Mothers’, Journal of Sociology, 36, 50-63.
  11. McCorkel, J.A. and Myers, K., 2003, ‘What Difference Does Difference Make? Position and Privilege in the Field’,
  12. McMahon, M., 1995, Engendering Motherhood: Identity and Self-transformation in Women’s Lives, New York: The Guilford Press.
  13. Moe, K.S., 2003, ‘Setting the Stage: An Introduction and Overview’, in Moe, K.S, ed., Women, Family, and Work: Writings on the Economics of Gender, (pp. 3-8), Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
  14. Oakley, A., 1986, From Here to Maternity: Becoming a Mother, Harmondsworth: Penguin. Pillay, V., 2007, Academic Mothers, UK: Trentham Bovics.
  15. Ribbens, J., 1994, Mothers and their Children: A Feminist Sociology of Child- rearing, London: Sage Publications.
  16. Rich, A., 1995, Of Women Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
  17. Ruddick, S., 1995, Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace, Boston: Beacon Press.
  18. Sanders, J., 2009, ‘In Dreams Begin Possibilities - or Anybody Have Time for Change’, in Evans and Grant, eds., Mama Phd, pp. 247- 250, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
  19. Snitow, A., 1992, ‘Feminism and Motherhood: An American Reading’, Feminist Review, 40, 32-52. Wilson, K.B. and Cox, E.M., 2011, ‘No Kids Allowed: Transforming Community Colleges to Support Mothering’, NASPA Journal about Women in Higher Education, 4(2), 218-241.
  20. Wu, Y., 1997, ‘Thinking Feminist Thought’, Surface, VII (115), 4-9.
  21. Young, D.S. and Wright, E.M., 2001,’ Mothers Making Tenure’, Journal of Social ation, 37(3), 555-568.

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