Intergenerational constructions of black feminine identity : mother-daughter narratives

Abstract

This study is focused on the relationship between mothers and their daughters, and the ways in which this relationship serves as a critical site from which black women (specifically from rural Venda area in Northern South Africa) construct their identities. Within the broad framework of qualitative research, this investigation employs a hybrid theoretical model rooted in black feminist epistemology incorporating standpoint feminism, feminist social constructionism, and intersectionality theory. The study draws on 18 interviews with mothers and daughters aged between 35-55 and 18-25 respectively. Using thematic narrative analysis, various themes, i.e. perceptions of femininity, intersectional nodes of femininity, and tensions between normative and counter normative constructions of femininity are explored to showcase shifts and changes in gendered narratives of femininity. The research finds that the multiple and varied ways in which identity is constructed is a complex relational process mediated by various social factors such as class, gender and location; and are consistent with the traditional conception of women as respectful, resilient, „silent‟, and nurturing. Furthermore, findings showed that most mothers played an active role in enforcing patriarchal ideologies of femininity, whereas most daughters actively challenged traditional conceptions of femininity to construct an empowered sense of femininity drawing from their mother‟s own lived experiences. The study further illustrates that the critical triangle of the self, motherhood and social location is a messy one that demands complex and dynamic understanding. This highlighted the need to use socio-cultural and socio-economic frameworks to investigate the multi-layered, complex process of femininity construction for women in rural areas, and how mothers and daughters in interaction with each other can become agents of social change in relation to gender relations.