8

MOTHERING EXPERIENCES OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN IN TURKEY:
CHILD BEARING, CHILD CARING AND CHILD REARING
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO

Bu tez
stanbul’da yasayan profesyonel kadınların annelik deneyimlerini
incelemektedir. Bu çalısma hem annelik hem de profesyonellesme ideolojisinin
etkisi altındaki profesyonel kadınların sınıf temelli annelik deneyimlerini arastırır.
Annelik deneyiminin hamilelik döneminden çocugun sosyallesmesi konusundaki
kararların alınmasına kadar pek çok haline odaklanan çalısma bütün bu noktaları
annelik üzerindeki degisen kontrol anlayısıyla iliskisi üzerinden arastırır. Bu tez
ayrıca profesyonel annelik anlayısının basarılı olmayı zorunlu kılmasını ve bu
zorunlulugun anneyi çocuk bakımından birincil derecede sorumlu ebeveyn olarak
belirleyen annelik ideolojisi tarafından desteklendigi de önerir. Hem sınıfsal
konumları hem de emek piyasasındaki profesyonel konumlarından dogru avantajlı
sayılan bu kadınlar toplumsal cinsiyet temelli ebeveynlik deneyiminin agırlıgını
hissetmeye devam etmektedirler. Öte yandan, hem sınıflı hem de cinsiyetli durumun
devamında da aktif rol oynamaktadırlar.
Anahtar sözcükler: annelik, profesyonellesme, sınıf, yeniden üretim
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost I would like to express my gratitude my supervisor Prof. Dr.
Yıldız Ecevit for her great intellectual support throughout this study by discussing
each single point with great patience. I wish to express my sincere thanks to the
examining committee members, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayse Gündüz Hosgör and Assist.
Prof. Dr. Aksu Bora, for their critique and suggestions. I also want to thank to
Assist. Prof. Dr. Kemal
nal for his great support from the beginning of the study.
His understanding of the world of children gives depth to my approach to the world
of mothers.
Without the material and emotional support of my family, this study might not be
finalized. Their endless trust on me gives me the courage to end what I have started
all the time.
I am grateful to my housemate Müge. This stressful period of writing makes me a
person hard to bear. I understood the importance of a friendship of 15 years
continuing in the same house with Müge better in such a period, which would be
harder to end with any other person. And also Mert, who had to listen all my
confusions, showed the greatest patience with his help to solve them.

rem… The friend I found late… She always made me believe that what I have been
doing is a very serious work. Thanks for knowing what makes me happy all the
time.
I should express my thankfulness to Elif and Serkan for finding me in Ankara and
becoming the best friends first and also for making me believe that a thesis may end
even at the hardest times.
Gül and Özen were the best hosts opening their house for me as I had to come to
Ankara frequently. Thanks to you for making me feel comfortable.
vii
Özge and Ergin, two of the oldest friends continuing to be in my life. Even their
existence was enough to feel that I am lucky. Such a feeling gained importance in a
period that led to a great pessimism from time to time.
Reading the thesis and making the corrections Pınar, Hakan and Ayça were the ones
spending their precious time for me. I should express my thankfulness to them as it
is a hard work to read an academic text for corrections.
Without mentioning Alaattin, Zeynep, Atakan,
dil, Nar and Vehbi, it would be
incomplete. I felt their support either close or from long distances.
I do not know what I should write for Kaspar entering into my world all of a sudden.
I should thank him for the flowers on the table. The ones with the buds that blossom
not instantly but at the end.
Finally, this thesis was written for Mert, my dearest brother. I always feel amazed
with his friendship and closeness despite the great age difference between us. I
would not have the courage to do what I had been doing without his bright eyes
following me all the time.
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PLAGIARISM ………...……………….…...…………….………………………...iii
ABSTRACT ……………………………...……………….………………………...iv
ÖZ ………… ………………………….……………..….……………....................v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...…………..………………..…………………………...vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………...................…………………….…viii
CHAPTER
1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................…..1
2. THEORIES ON PROFESSIONALISATION AND MOTHERING .............10
2.1. Professional Work..................................................................................13
2.1.1. Professionals and Social Class………………………………...17
2.1.2. Professional women combining professional work with
mothering……………………………………………………..21
2.2. Motherhood and Mothering...................................................................26
2.2.1. Universalistic Approach………………………………………..28
2.2.2. Particularistic Approach………………………………………..29
2.3. Professional Mothering .........................................................................31
2.4. Reproductive Role of Mothering……………………………………...34
3. METHOD........................................................................................................37
4. PROFESSIONAL WOMEN STEPPING TO MOTHERHOOD....................44
4.1. Planning the Child..................................................................................45
4.2. Pregnancy and Birth...…………………………………………………51
4.3. Learning to Mother…………………………...……………………….59
5. CHILD CARING WITH THE HELP OF THE OTHERS .............................66
5.1. Relations with the Childminder.............................................................66
5.1.1. The difference between the relationship formed with the
childminder and the cleaning women………………………..68
5.1.2. Control over the childminder ....................................................75
5.1.3. Active Mothering……………………………………………...80
5.2. Relations with the Father ......................................................................83
6. CHILD REARING AND SOCIALISATION……………………………….94
ix
6.1. Living Area……………………………………………………………97
6.2. Education within the Household……………………………………..100
6.3. Choice of School and Extracurricular Activities…………………….106
7. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………..114
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………122
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This study focuses on the mothering experiences of professional women in an
attempt to give a general view about many different aspects of these experiences.
As an explanatory research, it will concentrate on the professional women to find
out the social class characteristics of both their professionalisation in the mothering
practices and their mothering role executed to reproduce their class positioning
through child caring practices. Bourdieu’s conceptualisation is useful as he defines
the class positions through different capitals while avoiding a class definition
through the positioning in the relations of production. Using this conceptualisation,
it becomes easier to position professionals as a class fraction that can be considered
within middle classes. Secondly, he gives special emphasis on the actions of the
individuals within the social field, which both have the objective and subjective
characteristics at the same time. Thus, it is useful to conceptualise the mothering
task depending on the subjective statements of the women, by taking objective
conditionings into consideration. Lastly, as a scholar dealing with the reproduction
of the social classes, Bourdieu is useful while understanding the reproductive role
of the mothers through child caring practices.
One important point should be mentioned from the very beginning; that is the
complexity of social class issue. Bourdieu’s method of determining classes through
the homogeneity in the conditions of existence is important for this study. The
women analysed are highly educated professional ones occupying middle or upper
level positions within the companies and receiving high income. They were grown
up in the families, where educational assets were very important and thus they were
all graduated from high-schools where instruction is in English and from the
respectable universities. They are highly influenced by professionalism. They have
a homologous habitus producing their professionalism even in their mothering
2
practices. Their class positions can be observed through their living places, their
relations with the child minder and their child-rearing practices. Thus, these women
will be named just as professionals without concealing that they are occupying a
certain class position depending on the conceptualisation of Bourdieu. Most of the
studies have their own class definitions or they do not make a definition at all while
using the class concept as the main determining factor. Yet there are those making a
comparison between the middle classes and working classes which are widely used
within the extent of this study. The comparison between the working class and
middle class is done by positioning one at a higher level compared with the other
positioning at a lower level. These researches are important for my own study as
they set the social class as a determinant factor by differentiating working classes
and middle classes from one another.
This study has been conducted to analyse the mothering practices of professional
women. “How do professional women experience mothering?” is the main question
to be examined within the scope of this study. Mothering, as an experience starting
even from the pregnancy period, is analysed in relation to three main periods of
child-bearing, child-caring and child-rearing. The fundamental questions tried to be
answered in this study are: What are the constraints professional women experience
in their work place when they decide to have a child? How do they give birth;
through caesarean or vaginal delivery? How do they learn mothering? How do they
define their motherhood through relations with the childminder and the father? How
do they organise the childcaring role within the household? How do they choose the
schools to send their children and decide on the extra-circular activities children
will participate? Which factors influence professional women’s decisions about
their children? Does the professionalisation as an ideology affecting their
occupational role also has an effect in their experiences of mothering? What are the
constraints professional women face while experiencing their motherhood?
A study on the mothering experiences of professional women should begin with
defining professionalism, social class and mothering. The second chapter of this
3
study is about the theoretical discussions regarding professionalism, mothering and
class. In this chapter, I aim to show the intersection point of all these three major
areas of debate in order to benefit from each of them. To this end, I start with the
discussions on what is professional work and how it is defined. Women that I
interviewed with for this study are named as professional women. There are two
different approaches defining professions, which are trait and power approaches.
Power approach is chosen to be followed for this study, which defines
professionalisation as a power relation rather than the trait approach defining the
attributes making an occupation a professional one. Thus, these women are not
named as professionals primarily because they have specialised knowledge on their
occupations. Rather, they are subjected to the ideology of professionalisation both
at their work and in the other spheres of their lives, particularly in their way of
mothering. This does not mean that their professions do not require a specialised
body of knowledge, however the usage of this knowledge for gaining power within
the organisations construct professionalism. Through a collective attempt, they try
to protect and upgrade relatively specialised and differentiated activities, as
expressed by Larson (as quoted in Bayrakçeken:52). Thus, when professionalism is
used for creating a hierarchy, women occupying high level positions in the
companies can be named as the professionals. Although they are not all occupying
the highest level managerial positions in the companies they work, they are attached
to the ideology of professionalism. They believe that this ideology will help them to
reach higher level positions.
Class positioning of these professional women has a special characteristic as they
can neither be defined as bourgeoisie nor working class. According to Wright
(1989) they hold a ‘contradictory class location’ in between these two. However
this generally defined middle stratum between bourgeoisie and working class
cannot be characterised as a unity. Professionals positioning within the wide middle
class can be considered as closer to bourgeoisie primarily as they have the motive to
secure their privileges. Rather than defining social class just through the positioning
of them in the relations of production, Bourdieu’s definition of class is preferred
4
within the extent of this study, which is simply the ‘production of social relations’.
He defines the social positioning of the agents in the society through the
combination of economical, social, cultural and symbolic capitals. Cultural capital
is a relevant concept in order to understand the social position of professionals.
Professional work, which requires expertise in a particular area, is largely acquired
through education and thus professionals may first be considered as rich in cultural
capital. However, this study is not primarily on the definition of class positioning of
professionals. As the class positioning shows itself through social practices,
mothering as one of these practices is analysed as being affected from social class
positioning of professional women. Besides, professionalism as a product of the
‘homologous habitus’ of professional women will be analysed within their
mothering practices.
The second theoretical attempt is to place the subject within the discussions on
motherhood and mothering. Feminist studies focusing on the experiences of women
make many points on motherhood. Stressing the gendered characteristics of
motherhood and arguing that it is a socially constructed phenomenon are significant
contributions of the feminist theory. However, what is important in this study is the
class characteristics of mothering. It is a class-based activity. Particularistic
approach dealing with the class characteristics of mothering opens a great scope for
this study in this respect. This approach argues that white and middle class
women’s mothering experiences are taken as universal and tries to show that lower
class women or the women of different races experience mothering differently.
Thus, particularistic approach is useful as it gives emphasis on the class character,
however it has the deficiency to analyse this class character through the experiences
of lower classes. Concentrating on the women of middle and upper classes does not
have to be insensible to the class-based characteristics of their mothering
experiences. What will be argued in this study is that, a class-based analysis of
mothering may also be conducted through concentrating on the experiences of these
so-called “ideal type” of women.
5
Thus, mothering experiences of professional women will be discovered by basically
using two approaches: professionalisation and particularistic approach of
mothering. What is special to this study is the relationship it will try to construct
between being a professional and being a mother.
The term ‘professionalisation of motherhood’ is used by Beck and Beck-
Gernsheim, without being widely formulated. It is also expressed by Woollet and
Phoenix, while stressing about the expectations from the women to be ‘good’
mothers. Professionalisation has been formulated as like ‘mothering is conducted as
a work’ and/or ‘mothering should be learned in the best way’ by these scholars.
Following the approaches on professions and professionalism, the relation between
mothering and professionalism can be constructed from a wider perspective.
Professional women try to have a specialised knowledge in the area of mothering.
They define the borders of their profession in mothering, which means they are the
ones having the primary responsibility in this area and they execute a control.
Professional women take control of their mothering practices in order to create a
product, namely child, which/who is valuable in the market. Besides, their
professional approach to and understanding of the ‘work of mothering’ determines
their relations with the other people, who are involved in caring and rearing of their
children. They have the sole control on their profession, which is mothering, thus
they have the power to dominate, control and supervise the actions of other people,
namely the child minder and even the father. The project they have been
supervising, which is the child caring and rearing in case of mothering, need to be
controlled and the end product has to be ‘perfect’ to serve as a symbol of their
professionalism.
The intensive motherhood ideology, defined by the feminists as the dominant
ideology, can also be comprehended through its relation with the
professionalisation process. According to the power approach, demarcating what is
professional and what is not does not have certain norms and rules. Rather these
norms and rules change according to the requirements of the capitalist system. Like
6
professionalism, motherhood ideology has also a historical character, which is
formulated according to the changing needs of the society. Besides, this ideology is
not targeting every woman by the same way. Not all women can be intensive
mothers, which is defined as the prevailing ideology in the US by Arendell (2000).
While lower class women are expected to leave their children at home to go out
work, in order to be called as ‘good mothers’, middle and upper class women are
expected to be the parent of first contact under all circumstances. The class
positions of professional women become important at this point. The ‘right’ and
‘opportunity’ to exercise intensive mothering is hold by the professional women.
In order to find out the experiences of professional women in my study, I have
conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 12 professional women that are
occupying high level positions at various companies. They are holding upper level
positions in the company hierarchy, depending on their expertise. Although the
income, education level and the occupational position of their husbands are also
asked in order to find out the familial class positions of women, women’s own class
positions are tried to be considered. This is firstly done as it seems problematic to
define a woman’s class position stemming from her husband. Secondly, the above
mentioned properties of income, educational level and occupational position are not
enough to determine the class position of someone, and detailed information to
determine the class positioning of them, can be obtained from the women’s own
social practices.
Except one, all women have the children under the age of 7 as it is targeted to focus
on the early socialisation. Because, when children begin to go to school, many
external determinants come into play especially in the point of class reproduction.
Thus, I prefer to concentrate on the pre-school age children, who are primarily
being looked after by their mothers, or in other words, on children, whose caring
are primarily organised by their mothers.
7
I started analysing the mothering experiences of professional women from their
pregnancies. Fourth chapter is about the first stages of motherhood. That’s why I
name it ‘Stepping to Motherhood’. Women’s experiences while planning their
pregnancies and child birth are examined in reference to the studies on reconciling
work and family in this chapter. However, as this study is primarily about the
mothering experiences of professional women, it does not concentrate just on the
reconciliation of work and family, working women generally face with. This is
stated as the majority of the researches about working mothers are conducted in
order to show this double burden. However, it would be deficient, if this
reconciliation was not mentioned in a study on the mothering experiences of
professional women. In this chapter, their experiences of pregnancies and the way
they give birth are examined in detail, as they show an important characteristic of
their class positions. It is also important to indicate the nature of pregnancies that
are planned and organised according to the work load and responsibilities of women
in their workplaces. This chapter is also about the way these women learn
mothering. As professionalisation is to a certain extent is related with gaining
expertise on a specific area, we can say that these women are trying to become an
expert in motherhood through reading books and magazines, participating in the
pregnancy classes and using internet as an important source of information.
The fifth chapter is on the relation of these women with the other people,
particularly the fathers and the childminders, while constructing their motherhood
identities. Motherhood identity is one of the intersection points, or probably the
most important one between the social and the individual aspects, as Bora
(2001:78) states. Therefore, the individual construction of this identity through
women themselves, as active agents, should be emphasized. However, being an
active agent does not isolate the mother from the society she is living in, and thus
from the other people she is in touch with. Thus, this formation process is analyzed
through their relation with primarily the childminder and the husband. This is where
the professional understanding of mothering is most clearly seen as women’s
exercise of intensive mothering shows itself in their relation with the other people.
8
Besides, I will compare the relationship mothers form with the childminder and the
relationship they construct with other domestics coming home. This difference
would indicate a hierarchy between the tasks within the household, that is, while
child caring is formulated as a professional task, house cleaning and other domestic
chores are considered less important.
Although the class positioning of these professional women has a great influence on
all points of their experiences of mothering, from their way of giving birth to their
relation with the childminder; class reproduction through child caring practices is
discussed in the sixth chapter. The early socialisation period is important at this
point as it mentioned above. Because during this period of childhood, when the
infant is dependent primarily on the parents, especially on the mother. The effect of
school-based socialisation is tried to be kept as limited. Primary strategies followed
by the mothers while rearing their children are discussed heavily because of their
role in the reproduction of class. Choice of school and choice of extracurricular
activities in order to give the children “the best start in life” as Kauffman states are
also important determinants for the strategies of class reproduction. The important
point in here is the role of mothers in the reproduction of their class positions
through child caring and rearing practices. Mothering experiences of these
professional women thus comprises a great role in the reproduction of class. This is
also supported by feminist approach, which considers mothering as a gender-based
activity. On one hand, the experiences of mothers have class-character and on the
other hand this class-based character directly reproduces itself through child
rearing.
In the conclusion chapter, I will summarize the fundamental findings of this study.
Although professional women are shown as the models for the achieved equality of
women with the men, particularly in the work place; more personal and womanly
experiences of these women such as mothering are not generally mentioned. Or
child caring responsibilities of professional women have been studied only to find
out whether they adversely affect their career or not. This study is a contribution to
9
the literature, because it aims to make the voices of women to be heard. Besides,
analysing mothering experience of professional women necessitates considering the
issue from a wider perspective. These women are the actors of a particular class and
they are continuing to experience motherhood within the borders of a class and
gender based social relations. Thus, I will show how they experience mothering,
which has been affected from the class positioning, professionalisation and
motherhood ideologies.
10
CHAPTER 2
THEORIES ON PROFESSIONALISATION AND MOTHERING
In order to conduct a research about mothering practices of professional women,
theories on mothering, professionalism and social class analysis are to be covered.
It is very hard to find the relevant points within these wide discussions. However,
the main problem faced while developing this theoretical background is the
deficiencies within these conceptualisations. Firstly, although the relationship
between the professionalism and social class structure is tried to be defined by some
of the scholars, the women’s position within professional occupations and their role
in the professionalisation process are not problematized. Secondly, mothering is not
generally thought as a classed phenomenon, although it is formulated as gendered
within the feminist discourse. Lastly, the relation between the professionalisation
and mothering is not constructed clearly. Thus, merging points of these three main
discussions will be elaborated in order to benefit from each of them.
Discussions on the professions, professional occupations and professionals started
with the rise of modernisation and industrialisation. Professions are started to be
analysed by the sociologists studying work and organisations “with an approach to
the study of work as a set of social relationships” (Pavalko, 1971:22). In addition to
being related with the ‘social’ relationships, they are important for the studies of
social stratification. As Pavalko states (1971:7) occupation, either alone or in
combination with educational attainment and income, is the most frequently used
measure of social status, prestige and class membership. Mainly, the definition of
professional occupations and their role in the definition of class structures as
Pavalko states play an important role. However, Bourdieu (1984:103) argues “the
property emphasized by the name used to designate a category, usually occupation,
is liable mask the effect of all secondary properties which, although constitutive of
the category, are not expressly indicated.” Thus, following Bourdieu it will be
11
argued that a class or class fraction is not defined only by its position in the
relations of production. It is determined through the composition of different
capitals to be defined in detail below.
The definition of professions, which is conducted through two main approaches,
that is trait and power approaches, is significant as they define the ways of
approaching to the professional work. Following the power approach it is argued in
this study that professions and the way of professionalisation are significant not
only within the work patterns, but also for the mothering attitudes. However,
although some of the scholars focused on the role of the professions for the class
structure, the studies on the mothering practices of the professional women is
limited due to the constraints these women experience in the work places.
Reconciling the work and mothering tasks will also be mentioned in this study as an
important factor for the mothering practices of professional women. However, the
relation between the professionalism and mothering will also be discussed in this
study as a contribution to the general debate.
In addition to the lack of studies exploring the relationship between
professionalisation and mothering1, the theories on mothering and motherhood have
another deficiency in their relations with the class analysis. While it is criticised that
mothering is considered as a universal pattern assuming that all women go through
common experiences, these criticisms are based on the claim that universalistic
approaches are white and middle class centred. Thus, the experiences of the women
of privileged classes are considered as universal and common to the women of
lower classes. However, developing a study on the mothering experiences of middle
and upper class women do not necessitate understanding the point from a universal
stand. Instead emphasizing that these are the experiences of the women holding a
certain class location, which may give them some privileges compared with the
lower class ones, gives this study the power of being aware of the importance of
these women’s class positions in their experiences of motherhood and their
1 The present ones like Wollett and Phoenix and Beck and Beck-Gernsheim will be mentioned.
12
practices of mothering. Secondly the relation between the mothering practices and
professional work is used to be constructed just from the side of double burden
experienced by working mothers. I will try to move beyond this point by trying to
show the relation between professionalism and mothering.
Social class, which has nowadays been very often formulated as an insignificant
category, plays an important role in the formulation of this study. However in order
not to exceed the limits of this study, the theories about social class structures will
only be mentioned by relating them to both mothering and professional work. This
study discusses the relationship between the class and professions with regard to the
position of the professionals in the class structure. Thus, class positions of these
women are highlighted, rather than denying this class construction despite defining
them just as professionals. Besides, this shows its influence on the formulation of
professional mothering; where professional understanding of mothering cannot be
understood apart from mothers’ position in the class structure, although it cannot be
the sole explanation.
To summarize, to make this study a more comprehensive one, the relevant points of
all these three theoretical approaches will be discussed, their overlapping points will
be stressed and relevant effects of one to another will be explored. Thus, first,
approaches on the professional work, professionalisation and professionals’
position in the class structure will be examined. Second, relevant points of the
extensive body of literature on mothering and motherhood will be discussed by
giving emphasis on the classed nature of mothering in addition to its gendered
characteristic. Third, the professional mothering and/or professionalisation of
mothering and the role of professional mothers in the reproduction of their class
positioning will be formulated.
13
2.1. Professional Work
Professional occupations, which are closely related with the modernisation and
industrialisation, dominate the realm of work primarily in the modern societies.
Harold Perkin (1996) defines the rise of professional expertise as the third
revolution in the history of civilization, after the Neolithic revolution and Industrial
Revolution. Following the industrial revolution characterised by large scale of
production; professionals, as the actors of third revolution, create and use
technology. With the third revolution, many specialised occupations arose and
gained power in the society. With this emergence of the new occupations, people
gaining knowledge on these specialised tasks started to be defined as
“professionals”.
Professional work, which is defined through two main approaches of trait approach
and power approach, is started to be discussed in the sociological theory with the
increase in the number of professional people. Trait approach analyses the
professions according to their fundamental characteristics and their difference from
non-professional work. The attributes needed for a profession gained by people
through formal education brings in the unique character to execute their profession.
They exercise this autonomy gained through education and self-development within
or outside the professional institutions. This target to define professions is left by
the supporters of power approach, who criticise the former one as creating ideal
types. As Tuzel Bayrakceken (2004:48) states by quoting from Witz, the way
professionals prove their distinctiveness, the relation between professions and class
structure in contemporary capitalism, the strategy or the project they follow, power
they exercise within the society and the threats their power is subjected to are the
main concerns understanding the professions. Thus, rather than defining the
attributes needed to have a profession, the important point is considering what
makes something a profession and the power structures behind this definition
process. Their distinguished position within the structure of capitalism is also
14
criticised, where their work cannot be defined as productive, primarily in the case
of classical professions like doctors, engineers and so forth.
However, work conducted within the organisations is also defined as the
professional work and the salaried professionals working under a capitalist
enterprise do have a clearer situation within the capitalist relations of production.
As their performance of profession is not independent from the work of the
enterprise; it is productive as it creates a surplus value, which turns to the capitalist
as profit. Their expertise is used for the profit of the capitalist, where they partly
loose their autonomy coming from their expertise. Defining professions through
power relations Larson (1997) classifies them depending on the “degree to which an
expert occupation is subordinate to capitalist relations of production, and the degree
to which its relations to the production of surplus value is direct or indirect” (as
quoted in Tuzel Bayrakceken:50). Thus, the supporters of power approach in
defining professions focus on professionals’ relation with the capitalist system and
the fact that the production of a surplus value has a direct relation in the case of
salaried experts.
When the professions are defined through power relations, rather than through
concrete attributes to be gained to have a professional knowledge, which is
preferred within this study; the way an occupation becoming a profession starts to
gain importance. This process of becoming profession is called professionalisation.
Beside the supporters of power approach, there are others who define
professionalisation as a process. Vollmer and Mills define this process by using the
example of people changing their organisations in which they have been working.
Despite transferring from one organisation to another, the structure of positions
these people occupy does not change. They begin to speak of a ‘career’ when they
feel conscious about this continuation in their jobs. “Thus we find a trend towards
more formal occupational associations and more formalized occupational codes of
behaviour in many diverse lines of work. This we describe as a movement toward
professionalisation” (Vollmer and Mills, 1966:2). This definition of
15
professionalisation can be understood within the borders of trait approach defining
professional characteristics. People beginning to gain the necessary professional
attributes are started to be defined as professionals. Thus, they start to perform
nearly the same tasks in any company they work for. From the side of the power
approach, Larson defines professionalisation when “particular groups of people
attempt to negotiate the boundaries of the area in the social division of labour and
establish their own control over it” (as quoted in Tuzel Bayrakceken: 52). This
could easily be understood in terms of occupational hierarchy, which is actualized
through the system of competences and rewards. It enables to define a profession as
a more important one and position it on a higher level. However the reason behind
positioning one at a higher point is not always clear, as it is primarily conducted in
accordance with the gain of the capitalist. Thus, professionalisation may be defined
through profit-gaining target of the capitalist, rather than on the expert knowledge
and /or experience. Professionalisation gives the profession the power to control
over the others in the lower rank.
Through professionalisation, people occupying professional positions, form a
system of integrity, where they continue their privileged position in the society. The
ideology understood in the formation of this privileged and powerful position is
called professionalism. As Tuzel Bayrakceken (2004:63) argues, practically
professionalism is generally explained by referring to the moral and cultural aspects
of professions as well as material ones. It suggests its members how to live, how to
behave and how to practice. Thus, professionalism sets itself apart from the
understandings through the attributes of being professional, as it gives primacy to
the ideology in the formation within the process of professionalisation. Salaried
experts conducting so-called professional tasks, perform their works professionally
within the organisations. Besides, these organisations define their way of living as a
whole without limiting it within the organisation, through professionalisation.
Following all above-mentioned definitions of professions, professionalisation and
professionalism; it is understandable to define professionals as highly-educated
16
people occupying high-level positions in the organisations and performing a
specialised task through exercising power on the lower level of employees. From
the side of the trait approach, the necessary qualifications like education and
specialised knowledge are also held by these employees. Following the power
approach, their positions in the capitalist production relations are important in order
to reproduce the capitalist structures and class relations. Although, their definitions
of profession have to take place within the structure of companies, they have an
active role in the definition of the professional culture and they use the advantages
of their privileged position. They have a control on these professions and they
exercise this control on the lower level of employees.
The generally stated company culture, in which employees feel responsible to the
company to whom they are selling their labour power, has an effect in this
description of the professions. When they are defined as professionals having a
great importance for the survival of the company, their contribution to the profitgaining
target of the capitalist give them a unique position, as if this position could
not be filled by another person. Besides, their increasing role in the decisionmaking
process with the increase in their level within the company hierarchy
intensifies this understanding. Thus, salaried professionals working within
companies have more or less a power to define their profession and/or construct a
professional knowledge on their occupation. Educational standards are even
changed by the professionals as they try to improve their position on the continuum
of professionalisation. This power even in the definition of the educational
requirements is also important for understanding the process of professionalisation
as a dynamic rather than a static one, which can change depending on the
professionals having an initiative.
Professionalisation, as a dynamic process, is also a gendered process. Professions
emerging with the rise of modernity are also structured through a patriarchal
ideology, which excludes women from the public world of work. Even when
women gain the necessary qualifications for a profession, this does not guarantee
17
their equal participation in the professional world. Because, not only the material
requirements of the profession is important for being professional, but it is also
about the ideology defining professions and professional process through gendered
terms. However, keeping in mind that professionalisation process is also affected
from patriarchal ideology primarily excluding women from the world of
professional work and from the definition of professionalisation process, I will
define the women interviewed for this study as professional women, first as they
have the required qualifications for a professional occupation, second as they adopt
the ideology of professionalism both in their work and in their other social relations,
particularly in mothering. What significant in my study is the professionalism of
these women in their work although they have been conducting their profession
within pre-established company structure, because professionalism is also a way of
determining the professional culture and occupational ideology at the same time.
They themselves define their work as professional and their approach to their jobs
determine their professional understanding of work. Rather than mentioning them
as white-collars or managerial wo/men, the term professionals will be used in order
to stress their professionalisation in their other life courses, like mothering special
to this study. Besides, the effect of their professional work on determining the class
characteristics will also be stressed, because defining the women to be analysed in
this research as professional does not mean concealing their class positions.
2.1.1. Professionals and Social Class
Definition of the professionals starting to include the salaried experts within the
companies supports the general tendency to define these professionals primarily
through their positioning in the work place. Their positioning in the work place
make up of their occupations. As Wright (1980:177) argues, classes are generally
viewed as largely determined by occupations. However, there is not such a direct
relation between occupation and class. “Occupations are understood as positions
defined within the technical relations of production; classes, on the other hand, are
defined by the social relations of production” (Wright, 1980:177). Although
18
salaried professionals are occupying high level positions in the work places; it is
understood clearly from the above mentioned definition of professionalism that
professions does not construct an occupational category. In the simplest definition,
they are the experts in certain subjects and thus occupying high level positions
requiring expertise in the companies regardless of their areas of work. However,
they are closely related with the stratification system, which can primarily be
defined as the social inequality in the capitalist society. Inequality derives from the
unequal distribution of wealth, power and knowledge. Professionals, who are
occupied in privileged positions as they have an expertise, can reach social and
economical rewards. Thus, it can be told that professionals can be privileged
positions with these rewards gained through their professions.
However, it is not easy to define the class position of the professionals. In Marx’s
theory of class, working class in capitalist society is defined through its nonownership
of the means of production, where capitalists own them. Thus, although
professionals distinguish themselves from the working class on the basis of the
characteristic of the work they perform, they have the same position with the
working class as they also do not own their means of production. Besides, as it is
apparently seen in the case of the salaried professionals, they work under the
control of the capitalists, where they feel the power of them. Their labour power is
exploited for the gain of the capitalist. On the other hand, professionals have also
the right to use their power on the lower level of workers and are responsible to
increase the gain of the capitalist. They have the privileges in the society like the
bourgeoisie and have the ambitious to continue these privileges. They also have the
power yielded from their profession and they have control over their activities about
which they have an expert knowledge, although they do not have the control on the
means of production. Thus, professionals seem to hold a ‘contradictory class
location’, which is neither working class nor bourgeoisie.
The term of ‘contradictory class location’ is introduced by E. O. Wright in order to
determine the class positions of managers and supervisors, small employers and
19
semi-autonomous employees. Wright insists that these groups should not be forced
into one class or another, but rather the ambiguities in the class structure should be
recognised through their class positions. “Wright argues that these ambiguities
mean that certain groups occupy ‘objectively contradictory relations within class
relations’” (Carter, 1985:79). The category of managers and supervisors occupying
a contradictory location between the working class and the capitalist class should
include the professionals working as the salaried employees in the companies.
“Like capitalists, they control the labour of workers and at least some of the
physical means of production, but like workers they are excluded from control over
the accumulation process as a whole and are dominated by capital” (Wright,
1980:182).
Wright mentions about the closest position of the managers and supervisors to the
bourgeoisie. Skill assets managers and supervisors have become the basis for their
domination. Like the skill assets mentioned by Wright, what Bourdieu defines as
cultural capital is also important for understanding the positioning of professionals.
However, the fundamental difference of Bourdieu’s conception of class is that it is
not defined only through the positioning in the relations of production. According
to Bourdieu (1984:101), a class is “the set of agents who are placed in homogenous
conditionings and producing homogenous systems of dispositions capable of
generating similar practices; and who possess a set of common properties,
objectified properties, sometimes legally guaranteed or properties embodied as class
habitus.” Bourdieu defines three fundamental capitals in order to determine the
social positioning of agent.
As economic capital, which is immediately and directly convertible into the
money and may be institutionalised in the form of property rights; as cultural
capital, which is convertible, on certain conditions, into economic capital and
may be institutionalised in the form of educational qualifications, and as social
capital, made up of social obligations (‘connections’), which is convertible, in
certain conditions, into economic capital and may be institutionalised in the
form of title of nobility. (Bourdieu, 2007:84)
20
Class is made up of agents whose dispositions in relation to these capitals coincide.
By positioning himself apart from economism, which basically means that all types
of capitals can be reducible in the last analysis to economic capital; Bourdieu’s
conceptualisation of class is useful to understand the class position of professionals,
which cannot be easily defined through their positions in the relations of
production. Cultural capital, which is an important determinant of their positioning
in the labour force, defines primarily the educational qualifications required for
occupying professional positions. Thus, professionals are rich in cultural capital
required to have a profession and occupy a professional position in the labour
market.
Bourdieu defines the class primarily through the overall volume of capitals. As
Bourdieu (1984:114) states “the primary differences, those which distinguishes the
major classes of conditions of existence, derive from the overall volume of capital,
understood as the set of actually usable resources and powers – economic capital,
cultural capital and also social capital.”
The importance of Bourdieu comes from the way he determines social class. By not
stressing just the position within the production relations, a social class is the class
of individuals sharing the same habitus according to Bourdieu. Habitus is “what
makes it possible to produce an infinite number of practices that are relatively
unpredictable but also limited in their diversity” (Bourdieu, 1997:55). Classes
become visible in the daily practices of the individuals sharing the same habitus.
Within this context, professionalism may be argued as the way of practices of a
class sharing the same habitus. Professionalism is a “practice generated by the same
habitus (or homologous habitus, such as those that underline the unity of the lifestyle
of a group or class)” (Bourdieu, 1997:55). Thus, professionals share the same
habitus and this homologous habitus produces the professionalism as a way of
action common to the individuals sharing the same habitus, namely members of a
social class. As social class is also determines itself with its difference from the
other classes, professionalism becomes one of the distinguishing characteristic of
the professionals.
21
Bourdieu stresses the social relations, where class positions become visible. Thus,
mothering practices of professional women can be seen as the products of the
homologous habitus of the professionals, which determined from the homogeneity
of the conditions of existence of professionals.
2.1.2. Professional Women Combining Their Work with Mothering
While defining professional work, neither trait nor power approach attempts to
explore different characteristics of women in professions than men. Thus, like many
other social theories, which are gender-blind, these approaches also overlook the
gender issue. Like human capital explanations, which particularly underline the
individuals’ own attempts in empowering themselves; trait approach does not pay
attention to the differences between men and women and the difference in their
access to professional specialisation in order to gain professions required. Power
approach is also a gender-blind one, because it ignores gendered characteristic of
professionalisation process, where the professions are determined. The problems
women face in professional organisations will be discussed in this study in general,
and the discrimination they experience or they feel when they decide to be mothers,
in particular.
It is apparent in today’s organisations that women are misrepresented in the
professions. Professions seemed to be gained through high levels of education and
specialisation; and the exclusion of women starts even from their participation in
these qualification processes. However, the discrimination faced by women in
gaining professions exceeds the limits of this study. This study aims to focus on
professional mothers occupying high level positions at the organisations, thus only
the constraints faced in combining both their mothering work and professional work
within the organisation will be examined. Besides, it should not be forgotten that
this study is on the professional women’s experiences of mothering. It is not mainly
on the strategies they follow to combine their domestic and professional role as
women. Since the present study considers women’s professional character of work
22
as an important determinant in their way of mothering, their experiences of
motherhood cannot be fully understood without mentioning their position in the
labour market and their combination of mothering with paid work. The problem of
women experienced in the work place cannot be limited with their double burden
experienced in order to combine housework with professional work. However, the
scope of this study covers their experience as professional women in the work place
only when they decide to be mothers.
Studies on working mothers flourished with the increase in women’s labour work
participation. These studies are approaching to the situation from a Western-centred
standpoint and thus such an increase has been observed. However, the situation in
Turkey is worse, where the gap between men and women’s labour force
participation rates is very big. Moreover, the number of women participating in the
labour force has been decreasing. In “Gender Inequality in Turkey” report prepared
by Association of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen and Women
Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey, professional occupations are defined as the
traditional professions. Thus, it is meaningful to look at the ones defined as the
“lawmakers, senior executives and managers” category, as it includes the salaried
experts within the companies occupying higher level positions. According to the
report, only five pct of the women working in the cities are employed within this
category. Besides, it is the occupational category, where women are represented at
the lowest rate. Where ten pct of these occupations are hold by women, ninety pct
of them are occupied by men. 2
Thus, interest in studying professional women in Turkey does not stem from an
increase in their number. This study is about the minority, the experiences of whom
are examined for analysing their professional experience of mothering, their
construction of mothering and the class character of their mothering experiences.
As it is also stated above, the main aim of this study is not criticising the
2 Gender Inequality in Turkey: Problems, Priorities and Solution Alternatives Report prepared by
Association of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen and Women Entrepreneurs Association of
Turkey, July 2008
23
professional women’s reconciliation of work and family. Many points should be
mentioned in order to examine this reconciliation. Mothering role is one of the most
conflicting roles with the professional role in the work place, thus mothering
experiences of these women cannot be understood apart from the constraints in the
work places.
Glover and Kirton (2006) in their research about the women in the professions and
management argue that although the problems experienced by the women in
professions and managerial positions should not be regarded as a key issue for
solving the problem of gender equality, it is important to look at the experiences of
these women, who are considered as high-qualified for the business world. As
Glover and Kirton (2006:78) state, “the acquisition by women of this human and
economic capital is often seen by policy-makers as the solution to the problems of
gender inequality in employment.” Their entrance into the business world is
considered as reaching an equal participation rate. However they do not have equal
occupational outcomes, “thus in the manner of a test case, this suggests that much
more profound cultural and structural issues relating to gender are at play” (p.79).
As these women get the chance to have a high level of education and as they are
occupying high-level positions in the work places, this is generally shown as the
indicator of women starting to have equal opportunities with men. However, a
womanly experience of pregnancy to be analysed in the following chapter and
construction of motherhood to be discussed in the following part, are the concrete
points where the discrimination experienced or just felt by women can be observed.
Among the studies on working mothers, Hakim’s preference theory is the most
referred and criticised one by the feminists, as she defines the working experience
of women as a choice. Hakim claims that higher education does not alter the basic
pattern of sex-role preferences; there is a minority of career-oriented and workcommitted
women, a minority of home-centred and family oriented women and a
larger group hopes to combine work and family roles. The latter group will not
commit wholeheartedly to their career, but instead will seek trade-offs, such as
24
fewer development and promotion opportunities in return for more flexible working
arrangements. As Glover and Kirton (2006:87) mention “Hakim does not deal with
the more thorny question of where sex-role preferences come from and we are left
with the impression that because it is typical, it is therefore natural for women to
‘choose’ to combine work and family.” Thus, professional organisations seem to be
open for men, who do not need to make any choice between their domestic
responsibilities and their professional work and whose primary responsibility is
gaining income for family; whereas women do have to accept the double burden
created when they ‘choose’ to combine the professional role together with the
housewife and/or mothering role. As this is defined as choice, women aiming to
combine mothering with professional paid work feel the responsibility to organise
their time and obligations for both roles in order not to be excluded from both of
them.
In her article of Mothering, Class and Rationality, Simon Duncan attempts to show
how mothers of different classes understand the relation between mothering and
paid work and how childcare and the division of labour among parents should be
arranged. She mentions three categories of mothers according to their relations with
paid labour. The ones giving primacy to the benefits of physically caring for their
children themselves are named as primary mothers; the ones giving importance to
paid work for themselves as separate to their identity as mothers are named as
primarily worker; and the ones considering full time employment as part of good
mothering stand at mother/worker integral. While working class mothers generally
have the primary mother understanding, high-income ‘suburban’ wives do also
have the same understanding. Gentrifying partners, who are holding a similar class
position with suburban wives, stand at mother/worker integral. Duncan argues the
difference between women of different classes on their consideration of mothering
cannot be understood neither by preference theory of Catherine Hakim nor by the
rational action theory of John Goldthorpe. Hakim’s theory is totally a classless view
of women’s employment behaviour; it is the individual preferences of women
which determine their relation to mothering. Duncan (2005:59) argues this seems
25
more applicable to intra-class differences among women. In the rational action
theory of Goldthorpe, social class heavily determines the individual choices.
However, this theory cannot be useful in conceptualising the differences between
mothers of the same class in their experiences of mothering. Duncan believes in the
importance to combine both the class and preference. This is not done by devaluing
the class as a socially decisive category. According to Duncan (2005:73), both
preference and rationality are socially determined and thus they become social
moralities.
It is apparent that it is generally not an either/or situation but a reconciliation of
both for professional women. However, this is not related with the preferences of
individual women. There are “barriers and constraints both societal and
organisational levels that prevent women from forging management careers”
(Glover and Kirton, 2006:89). Human capital explanation favouring individualism
drive of capitalism, which imposes all the responsibility to the individual in their
success, can be thought as one of these constraints preventing women. According to
human capital theory, women exercise a free choice to privilege child birth and
child rearing over career. Besides, as women are responsible for the household
tasks, they have a lower chance to develop the needed characteristic for their
professional work. Self-development, which is favoured by the human capital
theoreticians, demands “men” to spend time and energy for being equipped with the
needed qualifications for their professions and to organise their time for the work to
do. Besides, as Glover and Kirton (2006:92) state, management occupations appear
to favour the working conditions that men are more likely to be able to meet,
including long and unpredictable hours.
Thus, starting from gaining professions, women start to experience discrimination
against men and this continues in constructing their place in the professional
organisations. The ones, who succeed to gain professions in this stage, continue to
experience problems in combining their family and professional responsibilities. It
26
is an important decision to become a mother as it increases the work load on the
family side.
However, being successful may be determined according to the trait approach, as
gaining the required qualifications like specialized knowledge needed for the
professional works. However, as the personal characteristic come into play, the
characteristics needed for a profession are defined within male discourse. It is also
continuing to be problematic, when the professionalisation period is defined
through power approach. Because, women, who are excluded from the definition of
professions, they are directly being excluded from the professional work itself.
Thus, being successful is used to define the achievement of the women just to enter
into companies and position themselves on the upper levels of the occupational
hierarchy.
2.2. Motherhood and Mothering
There is an extensive body of literature of motherhood and mothering. According to
Arendell (2000:1192), these studies can be divided into two predominant streams;
“one is the theorising of mothering and motherhood and the other is the empirical
study of the mothering experience.” These two streams are not strictly divided
from each other, as mothering experiences of women cannot be separated from the
motherhood ideology. As Bassin et al. (1994:3) state in 1970s, feminist theory
dismantled the motherhood ideology by understanding its male-dominated roots
and by understanding that it did not represent the experiences of mothers
themselves. Thus, this gives primacy to mothers’ subjectivity and their own
discourses on experiences in altering the myths and changing social reality.
Mothering is generally defined through references to nurturing and caring for
dependent children. Giving primacy to the experiences of women in the society,
feminists believe in the social construction of mothering like their understanding of
gender. “Gender is used to refer to socially constructed relationships and practices
27
organised around perceived differences between the sexes” (Glenn, 1994:3). This
historical construction of gender opens the way for women to be defined as if they
are born to become potential mothers and they are naturally practice mothering.
Mothering directly related with the caring relation between the woman and the
dependent children seems to derive from the biological birth giving activity.
Feminist constructionism considers motherhood and mothering as dynamic social
interactions and relationships, located in societal context organised by gender in
accordance with prevailing gender belief system, as told by Arendell (2000: 1193).
Thus, motherhood does not derive from biology and it is not natural and universal.
However, constructionism may be problematic in two ways. As Diquinzio
(1999:21) expresses if social constructivist theories argue for an ungendered
subjectivity; “they do not provide adequate conceptual foundations for theorising
women’s difference because they can imply an ungendered subjectivity on which
the social construction of gender operates”. If these theories try to provide such
conceptual foundations; “they may do so in terms of sexed body; thus they risk
reconceptualising women and the feminine in terms of embodiment, understanding
in individualist terms and excluding women from subjectivity.” Motherhood cannot
be explained just through the female body, like essential motherhood ideology
defines it. Then social constructivists can be followed in this determination process
experienced by women. However at this point, the differences among women
should be stressed. Thus, as Diquinzio (1999:27) argues feminist accounts of
mothering should “focus on specific instances of mothering in specific contexts, so
as to analyze in detail the complex process of over-determination that differently
constitute mothering in different material, social and ideological contexts.” Arguing
that mothering is experienced differently by the women of different classes by
concentrating on professional women necessitates such recognition of differences
among women without neglecting the effect of over-determination through the
effects of motherhood ideology.
Mothering occurs within specific social contexts that vary in terms of material
and cultural resources and constraints. How mothering is conceived, organized,
and carried out is not simply determined by these conditions, however.
28
Mothering is constructed through men’s and women’s actions within specific
historical circumstances. Thus agency is central to an understanding of
mothering as a social, rather than biological, construct. (Glenn, 1994:3)
The construction and change in the motherhood ideology and the mothering
practices throughout history will not be examined in detail in this study. Here, it is
important to note the division between feminist scholars following universalistic or
particularistic approach in defining motherhood as it is aimed to define mothering
as a classed act as well as a gendered one.
2.2.1. Universalistic Approach
The need for detachment of social from biological derives feminists to formalise
mothering through socially constructed ways. Thus, “feminist writers have
attempted to develop theories that locate the origins of the seemingly universal
pattern of women mothering in social, rather than biological, sources” (Glenn,
1994:4). Nancy Chodorow, who is the most influential writer supporting this
universal understanding of mothering, constructs her definition of mothering on
psychoanalytic object relations theory. Deriving from the importance of the fact that
women rather than men are the primary care takers of the children, she gives
emphasis on the relationship between mother and daughter in the construction of
the mothering identity and detachment of men from this feminine area, which
supports their male-dominant psychology.
We can take the psychoanalytic account to describe the genesis of heterosexual
orientation in women. But we must reject any assumption that what this account
describes is natural, self-evident and unintended. To the contrary, it seems to be
both consciously and unconsciously intended, socially, psychologically and
ideologically constructed. And it is not inevitable. (Chodorow, 1978:138)
Chodorow argues that as the girls identify themselves with the mother; nurturance
and care become the part of women’s personality. Because of heterosexual
orientation as the psychoanalytic account describes, children identify themselves
with parents of their own gender; a boy with the father and a girl with the mother.
29
Sarah Ruddick also analyses motherhood by resorting to natural and biological
explanations. She constructs mothering as a work or practice. Mothers engage in
maternal practices in terms of nurturing, protecting and training of their children.
“Although mothers are, culturally and individually, radically different from each
other, there is a sufficient commonality among women to define a ‘maternal’ work
in terms of responses to children’s demands” (Ruddick, 1994:33). This
understanding enables her to define mothering as not being naturally a feminine
work, rather the one who conducts these sets of activities is called as s/he has been
executing the ‘maternal work’. By separating mothering from birth giving, she
stresses that there is no any explanation for the ‘naturalness’ of mothering deriving
from birth giving. Thus, the ones performing maternal work, namely mothering,
may develop the same concerns. It may even be problematic to separate birth
giving and mothering primarily because of the biological relationship between the
woman and the baby during the pregnancy period. As Glenn argues while
criticizing Rothman, “since the act of carrying a fetus establishes a relationship and
men are obviously disqualified from this relationship, in fact Rothman does not
completely avoid privileging motherhood as a special and unique status.” (Glenn,
1994:25) Although the naturalness of this relationship between woman and the
baby can be disputable factor, by following the Ruddick’s own definition of
mothering, we may tell that this may even start from the pregnancy period of
women. As it is tried to be analyzed in the following chapter, women start
mothering, responding to the needs of the children, even from the period of
pregnancy. It is totally a problematic issue, where the natural process of birth
giving starts and where it turns into mothering.
2.2.2. Particularistic Approach
Universalistic approach has been criticised by generalising mothering from a
narrow social and class based experiences. As Glenn (1994:5) mentions, both
Chodorow and Ruddick give the message that the arrangement of ‘biological
mother as sole and exclusive caretaker’ is universal and the issues that all mothers
30
face are identical. Glenn criticises them as putting the experiences of a particular
class, probably their own, at the centre of their analysis. However, as Arendell
(2000:1195) expresses while defining the general criticism of particularistic
approach; “cultural and economic contexts variously shape mothers’ activities and
understandings. Mothering takes place within ‘specific historical contexts framed
by interlocking structures of race, class and gender.” The ways mothers’ protection
or socialization of their children vary and their activities are shaped by the
mentioned structures of race, class and gender. There may even be the mothers,
who do not perform the caring at all, on the contrary of universalistic approach
taking it as a general phenomenon.
Patricia Hill Collins, in her article of ‘Shifting the Centre: Race, Class and Feminist
Theorising about Motherhood”, focuses on the experiences of African-American
women and thus points out the different ways for looking at mothering. Collins
(1994:48) argues that centering feminist theorising on the concerns of white, middle
class women leads to two problematic assumptions. “The first is that a relative
degree of economic security exists for mothers and their children. The second is
that all women enjoy the racial privilege that allows them to see themselves
primarily as individuals in search of personal autonomy, instead of members of
racial ethnic groups struggling for power”. According to her, three issues form the
bedrock of the motherwork of the women of colour, which are survival, power and
identity. As these are not mentioned by the white, middle class feminist works on
mothering, there occurs a main stream theorisation on the issue, which does not
give place to the different voices.
While the significance of race and class in shaping the context in which
motherhood occurs remains virtually invisible when white, middle class
women’s mothering experiences assume prominence, the effects of race and
class on motherhood stand out in stark relief when women of colour are
accorded theoretically primacy. (Collins, 1994:61)
Although this study will concentrate on the mothering experiences of professional
women, who constitute the examination area of the feminists criticised by Collins;
31
their professional mothering practices will not be formulated without taking their
class character into account. Thus, the significance of race and class does not need
to remain invisible in an analysis focusing on the mothering experiences of white,
middle class women. A class-based analysis is also possible in a study
concentrating on the middle and upper classes, who are standing at a more
privileged positions. Professional women’s professional understanding of
mothering, their active, controlling and regulatory role in mother work, cannot be
thought apart from their class positions. Their economic and cultural capitals have a
great role in determining the scope of their mothering activities. Besides, their role
in the reproduction of their class through child caring practices, which will be
discussed in the following chapters, their main target to reproduce their privileged
position within the society, should all have a class-based understanding. It might be
better to make a comparison in order to show the different mothering practices of
women of different classes; however as an explanatory study this one will
concentrate on the professional women and their experiences of mothering.
2.3. Professional Mothering
Characterising women analysed in this study as professional women and the
reasons of this formulation are explained above. One of the important arguments of
this study is that professional women approach their child caring practices in a
professional way; in addition to being professionals in their work, they also turn
mothering activities into a profession. Their construction of their mother identity
through the relations with the child minders and fathers will be discussed in order to
understand this professional relationship with these other people. Besides, their
construction of motherhood through giving special emphasis to the expert
knowledge has this professional character.
Women preferring to create a career opportunity for themselves in the competitive
business world and their professionalisation in the labour market pave the way for
their professionalisation as mothers as well. However, this relation should not be
32
thought as a cause and effect relationship. They do not exercise their mothering
professionally as they use to have a professional status in the work place. Rather,
there is double relationship between these two identities of being professional and
being mothers. First one is the class character of these professional women, which
directly influences their motherhood practices. The social capital and cultural
capital in addition to their economical capital affect their child rearing practices.
The habitus of their social class produces this professionalism in motherhood.
Secondly, professionalisation as an ideology affects both their work and mothering.
They approach mothering as a professional work.
In her book named “Hard Labour: The Sociology of Parenthood”, Caroline Gatrell
discusses the results of her research on the women who are among the most likely
to take ‘professionalisation’ of the institution of motherhood seriously. Although
not defined openly by Gatrell, the professionalisation may probably used in its
dictionary definition, namely pertaining a profession of child caring. If the above
mentioned writings of professionalisation and professions are remembered,
professionalisation of mothering starts with gaining a specialised knowledge about
mothering. They define the borders of their profession, namely mothering, and
execute a control in this area. They are entitled with the necessary characteristics,
highest qualifications and biological requirements of being mother and thus have
the power to be the parent-of-first-contacts; the other parties are positioned at lower
levels determined through the deficiency of these needed characteristics.
The definitions on the professional caring can only be expressive when it is defined
through intensive motherhood ideology, which creates the burden on the women to
look after their children at the ‘best’ way. Intensive mothering is defined as the
prevailing motherhood ideology by Arendell. “This motherhood mandate declares
that mothering is exclusive, wholly child centred, emotionally involving and time
consuming” (Arendell, 2000:1194). This is not just about being child-centred,
emotionally involving and consuming. What is expected from these professional
mothers in their execution of mothering is approaching to the child caring as they
33
should approach to their works and form relations with the other people, fathers and
the child minders in the case of child caring, similar to their business partners or
employees. This professional understanding of mothering is supported by the
ideology of motherhood. Because ideology of motherhood determines the woman
as the primary responsible partner from the care of children. Thus, women feel the
need to gain expertise in this work of mothering and execute it in the best way.
Besides, motherhood ideology defines what ‘good mother’ is, what she has to do
and by this way it controls and delimits professional women although they feel
themselves empowered about the childcaring work. They are all imposed an
external standard to which they should obey. They continue to conduct intensive
mothering though different ways as they have to organise their time more as
working mothers. However, they continue to spend all their time off work for their
children, they follow professional writers, psychologists, pedagogues for learning
the way to mother, they give enormous energy for the selection and direction of the
childminder and even they continue to ‘manage’ the relation between the child and
the father professionally in order to form the ‘right’ relation between them.
Defining the class positioning of professionals is also important at this point.
Because professional mothering as the general concept is used in order to stress
both professionalisation of mothering and class-based practices of mothering. The
class character of the above mentioned characteristics of intensive motherhood
ideology should not also be forgotten. Professionalisation of mothering, which is
supported by the intensive motherhood ideology, is experienced by the professional
women in its most apparent form. All their actions starting from the decision for
pregnancy to their early child caring practices can only be understood by taking
their class character into consideration. These decisions requiring high economic,
social and cultural capital, can be taken not by all mothers ‘to do the best for their
children’ but by professional women holding these capitals.
34
2.4. Reproductive Role of Mothering
Class character of professional mothering is explained above. Following the
particularistic approach in understanding that mothering, which cannot be expressed
from a universal stand, it is argued that it has been experienced differently by the
women of different races and classes. As Glenn (1994:3) argues mothering occurs
within specific social contexts that vary in terms of material and cultural resources
and constraints. These material and cultural resources are the ones used to
determine the class positioning of people by Bourdieu. Mothering practices, which
have been experienced differently by the women of different classes, do have
another direct relation with the class structure. Biological reproductive role of the
mothers continue in the way of generational reproduction through socialisation as
they continue to be the primary responsible parent from child caring.
Bourdieu’s importance for this study is also his theory of class reproduction.
Reproduction strategies, the set of outwardly very different practices whereby
individuals or families tend, unconsciously and consciously, to maintain or
increase their assets and consequently to maintain or improve their position in
the class structure, constitute a system which, being the product of a single
unifying, generative principle, tends to function and change in a systematic way.
Through the mediation of the dispositions towards the future, which is itself
determined by the group’s objective chances of reproduction, these strategies
depend, first on the volume and composition of capital to be reproduced; and
secondly, on the state of the instruments of reproduction, which itself depends
on the state of power relations between the classes. (Bourdieu, 1984:125)
As Bourdieu argues, ‘the best hidden and socially most determinant educational
investment’ is the family’s transmission of cultural capital (as cited in Vincent &
Ball, 2006:159).
In the same way with the importance of family in the transmission of cultural
capital, Reay also discusses centrality of the family. According to her; “Cultural
capital is not just about the relationship of different social groupings to the
educational system, it is also about the centrality of the family to any understanding
35
of cultural reproduction” (Reay, 2004:58). Through this way of conceptualising the
relations within the family, it is inevitable to mention the importance of women’s
primary role in child caring practices. Although Bourdieu does not develop his
concepts of capital by taking the mentioned work of women into consideration, he
seems to recognise the centrality of mothers. According to Bourdieu:
It is because the cultural capital that is effectively transmitted within the family
itself depends not only on the quantity of cultural capital, itself accumulated by
spending time, that the domestic group possess, but also on the usable time
(particularly in the form of mother’s free time) available to it (as cited in Reay,
2004:59).
Transmission of cultural capital within the family is the major role of mothers
through child caring practices. Cultural capital is not only related with the
education, although education has the major role in determining cultural capital. As
Harker (2000:172) states, for Bourdieu cultural capital is style, language, taste,
disposition, social grace etc. which one acquires from family through socialisation
as part of the habitus. The important point for the aim of this study is stressing that
mothers are the primary responsible ones from this socialisation within the
household, which includes both their role in the education of their children and
socialisation in a wider sense including the points from the choice of living place to
extra-circular activities. Thus, they play the major role in the reproduction of
classes through their mothering practices.
To sum up, theories on professionalisation, mothering will be used in this research
on mothering experiences of professional women. Class debate will be included in
the research through the class-character of professionals and mothering practices.
Although these inter-relations between class, professionals and mothering have
been conducted by some of the scholars, what is special to this study is explaining
the relation between professionalisation and mothering. The main argument of this
study is professionalisation has a great effect in the mothering experiences of
professional women. This professionalisation of mothering is not independent from
both the motherhood ideology imposed on women and class-character of these
36
professional women. As Woollet and Phoenix (1993:217) state mothers respond to
the expectations that they should be ‘good’ mothers and thus maximize their
children’s development. Thus they carry out the tasks of mothering with high
degrees of professionalism. However, this mothering role has a class character. Not
all mothers are required to feel the responsibility of professional mothering and also
not all mothers can perform the requirements of this professional role.
37
CHAPTER 3
METHOD
This study is based on the interviews conducted with professional women
occupying higher level positions at the companies in Istanbul and having at least
one child below 7. More than half of the women interviewed were occupying
managerial level positions within their companies. The rest are directors, consultant
and editor.
Literature review, providing the theoretical framework of the study, focuses on the
relationship between three topics, mainly, professionalism, mothering and class. As
the definition of the professional, which start to include the salaried employees,
who have a special knowledge at certain topics, gave me the opportunity to define
these women as professional ones. Their professionalisation has a great importance
first in defining their class position, secondly in defining their mothering practices.
Class positions of these women are also an important determinant in definition of
their mothering practices. Thus, deriving from a statement used by Beck-
Gernsheim, which is “professionalisation of motherhood”, the relation between
these two seems to be an important and encourages me to conduct a research on this
issue. As both professionalisation and motherhood are class-based facts, the class as
a sociological category should also be at the core of this analysis.
Social sciences as primarily concentrating on the agents, the voices of whom are not
heard and who are in disadvantaged positions in the society, give smaller emphasis
on the experiences of middle and upper classes. There may be various reasons
behind this. My experiences while conducting this research has important
implications in order to understand the difficulties of analysing the experiences of
professionals. Firstly, it is harder to reach them as a researcher. They are living and
working in more isolated areas, they are not very much visible in the public places.
38
I should enter into giant buildings with the securities at the gate; I have to talk with
their secretaries in order to reach them. They live according to strict schedules. I
should plan my time according to them; I do not have any option to extend the time
of the interview as their time is a high-quality one. Secondly, they feel
uncomfortable, when they are at the position of a subject to be investigated.
Although, I do not position them as the subjects, they feel like I want to learn
something that is private for them. This problem is also related with the subject of
the study. Mothering experiences, which stands at the intersection point of the
public and private, is also related with what has been going on within the
household, within their families, within the private world. Most of the women
demand to read my study when it is finished. This is related with the desire to learn
what has been written about themselves. Their discomfort also comes to the scene
in the subjects related with their financial situation. I had difficulty in obtaining
information about their monthly wages. However, I am aware that this may also be
a finding of the study. They do not want someone else, especially a foreigner, a
researcher, to learn about their income and their financial situation. One of the
interviewees accused me for asking such a question and questioned whether my
study was being scientific or not. Lastly, it is harder to make a discursive analysis
with these professional women. Although a researcher cannot question the sincerity
of the interviewees, I face with many contradictory statements especially about the
subjects of the relations with the father and the problems they experienced in the
work place. They seem like they are more hesitant to tell about the conflicting
situations and contradictions in their lives. This is because of the fact that, they have
been living a well-constructed and controlled life, where they do not want to have
any problem related with two important persons in their lives; first their husband,
who they chose themselves, second their work where they have the profession and
gain their lives.
All these ‘drawbacks’ may at the same time be the ‘encouraging’ points leading me
to do a research about the mothering experiences of these women. They are used to
be the subjects of the researches about their experiences in the working places in
39
order to show the drawbacks experienced by women in the work place, the
contradictory roles of working and mothering. However, I concentre directly on
their mothering role and construction of their motherhood identity, which can be
related to their professionalism and their active role in the reproduction of class.
Thus, this study demands to enter into their privacy more. These women may be the
ones experiencing the advantages of being in the public. Because they have active
workforce participation and besides they are holding upper level positions within
the companies. However the effects of this publicity in their so-called ‘more private
experience of mothering’ will be analysed within the extent of this study.
Because of the above mentioned problems occurred while reaching these women,
interviews, except two, were conducted in their work places or at a restaurant
during the launch time. This has two basic disadvantages. Firstly, I demanded from
all to meet in their houses. An interview does not only consist of the discourses of
the participants. The observations of the interviewer may also be important for the
findings of a study. Observing the place where the women live, witnessing the
relations between people (whether husband, childminder or the mate) within the
household may make important contributions for the study. However, as these
professional women have a planned life and they have been experiencing
difficulties even in organising the time they wanted to spend with their children, it
is hard to demand from their private time. Secondly, meeting in the work place or in
a restaurant launch time put the limit on the interview. Although they were all really
kind in extending their lunch break which was one hour, it sometimes became an
obstacle to eat and talk while they were stressful to go back to work. When an
interview took place in the work place, it was more advantageous since I could
observe the actual conditions at the work place and their stress and their work pace.
As a qualitative study based on the in-depth interview, the study does not aim to
reach a generalisation about the experiences of all professional mothers. Although
15 interviews had been planned to be conducted at the beginning of the study,
because of the difficulties in reaching these women, I interviewed with 12.
40
However, these in-depth interviews with the women provide me to form a one-toone
relation with these women, where they tell about their experiences, which
might not be asked in a survey.
The questions of the interview were not strictly structured. They were generally
open-ended questions, which gave the interviewee the chance to feel free in telling
what she wanted. Although the relevant topics were tried to be talked with all the
interviewees, the priorities were generally determined by them. I thought asking
survey-like questions about their personal and family background would interrupt
the continuity of the talk. Thus, I have sent some questions to the participants
through e-mail by using the advantage of their close relation with the internet
technology. It was also thought that it would be easier for them to answer these
questions after a depth conversation about their lives, which was demanded to end
with a greater confidence with me.
Five of the interviewees were graduated from private schools and six from
Anatolian High Schools. Seven of them graduated from universities where
instruction is in English, four from the universities in Ankara or Istanbul where
instruction is in Turkish. The majority of women were graduated from Faculty of
Economic and Administrative Sciences. One of them was graduated from
Department of Biology, one from Department of Literature and one from
Department of Communication. Two of these professional women had graduate
degrees on European Union Studies and Management. One of the interviewees used
to live in France and she talked about her university as a well-known one, which
had strict rules while accepting students. As stated at the beginning more than half
of the women have been occupying managerial level positions. Two of the rest were
directors, one was editor and one was consultant.
There is no great difference between the educational backgrounds of these women
and their husbands. Except four, all husbands were either graduated from Anatolian
High Schools or private high schools. Eight of them were graduated from
41
universities delivering education in English. Two of the husbands have been
operating their own businesses. The rest were working as managers, assistant
managers or coordinators. The sectors women and their husbands work were
banking, insurance, organisation, media, consultancy, trading and marine business.
I could not obtain information about the monthly income of all the interviewees.
The average annual income of women, who mentioned about their wages, was
above 5000.
I have also gathered information about the educational level of the parents of both
women and their husbands. Most of them were at least high-school graduates. Four
of the professional women’s mothers were university graduates, where nine fathers
were university graduates. Except three mothers graduating from secondary
schools, the rest were all high-school graduates. Among the fathers, there was only
one who was a secondary school graduate. Only two among the mother in laws
were graduated from university, the rest from either high or secondary schools,
whereas five of the father in laws were graduated from university. Cultural capital
is primarily related with the educational capital, although they are not totally
identical. Thus, answers of these questions are relevant for the study as they are
important for understanding the cultural capital these women and their husbands
hold through their educational background. Information about the wages was
important for determining their economic capital. Educational level of the parents
may be indicated as the familial environment both the women and their husbands
were grown up. However, I am aware that this information are not sufficient to
determine the social positioning of people, the points reached from the
interviewees’ answers to the questions are also important in order to determine their
class habitus.
A historical pathway was followed while asking the questions, starting from the
time they are pregnant till the present. As mothering experiences were thought to
include even the decision to become a mother and planning of the pregnancy, the
period was lengthen to include pre-birth period. However, some general questions
42
about their date of marriage, when their child was born, the places they have been
living were asked first. About their experiences before the birth, women were asked
when and how they planned to become mother and whether they experienced any
drawbacks in their work regarding their decision to have a child. The medicalisation
of the whole process of child bearing was thought to be analysed also in this part
through asking their relations with the gynaecologists and their experience of birth.
In the next part of the interview, the experiences of these women just after the birth
were tried to be understood, primarily concentrating on their decision about who
would look after the baby. These parts of the interviews were almost always very
long as women had many things to tell about the childminders. All these had given
me important clues about professional women’s construction of mother identity and
their positioning of class, which were very clearly seen in their relation with the
childminders from a lower level class. Although it had not been thought as an
important point, the difference of the relation constructed with the home workers
within the house, who were the cleaning woman and the childminder, had an
important character in their understanding of professionalism of the mothering
practice. The questions about their recent caring practices, the choice of the school
and the extra circular activities for the ones having a child at the school age and the
future prospects of the others with smaller children were asked in the fourth part of
the interview. All these were important in order to analyse the role of these mothers
in the reproduction of their class position as child caring practices was a fruitful
area for observing the reproduction of class. Information about the relations with
the fathers were generally tried to be obtained within the each part through asking
the role of the father.
As mentioned above, these women were very sensitive about the research topic and
they wanted to learn in detail about what I had been aiming in doing such a
research. Some of them asked questions about me and the roots of my interest in
this topic in order to learn more about the research itself and me, which would make
them to more comfortable. Coming from Middle East Technical University, a wellknown
and high-prestigious school was a point that diminishes the distance
43
between us. I think it was important for two reasons, Firstly, this proves the
seriousness of the research conducted under assistance of well-known professors.
Secondly, this is a similarity between us, as these women are all graduated from
well-known universities in Turkey. This may be thought as at least as the similarity
of the cultural capital we have. I was a young woman, who would probably have
the similar experiences in the future, they believed and I sometimes felt as I had
been given advices at some points of the research. This was important as it shows
that they feel close to me and the closeness to the researcher might make them feel
comfortable in telling their experiences.
Before conducting the interview I explained the subject of the study as the
mothering experiences of professional women. They had no problem in defining
themselves as professionals. However one of the deficiencies of this study arose at
this point. After conducting the interviews, I thought I should talk about their
professions and their professionalism in the work place with them. Thus, just this
acceptance of being a professional and not hesitating to define themselves as
professionals can be considered as a data at this point. They all delivered me their
cards including all their personal communication information in order to give me
the opportunity to reach them later. Although I had been anticipating to face with
more questions about the way I would use the data collected from them, only two of
them asked me how I would mention about their names and one demanded just to
tell her first name. However I had planned to change the names of the interviewees
while telling about their experiences and I told it as a generally preferred method to
them.
It was very important to make the voices of women from all classes to be heard.
Although it is thought that professional women do not experience any problems in
expressing themselves, it was interesting to talk about their mothering practices
with them, because mothering was thought as not being their primary task within
the society. It was interesting to see the effects of their class positions and
professionalisation in their mothering practices.
44
CHAPTER 4
PROFESSIONAL WOMEN STEPPING TO MOTHERHOOD
Together with the industrialisation in the nineteenth century, the separation of
public and private spheres begins, where public sphere is defined as the men’s
world and private sphere as that of women’s. Thus domestic tasks are structured
thereafter as the responsibility of women; and accordingly women are excluded
from the men’s world of work, outside the household. Especially mothering is
considered among the natural instincts of women and thus it is constructed as the
primary responsibility of women. However, as women increasingly start to
participate in the workforce more, above division of labour between men and
women within the household, where men are the breadwinners and women are the
carers, had to be modified. Although it is mentioned in the previous chapter that
there hasn’t been such an increase in the labour force participation of women in
Turkey, this study is about working mothers, who occupy professional positions in
the work force. Although there is not such a direct relation between the labour force
participation of women and the double burden experienced by them, especially in
such countries as Turkey, where the said rate of labour force participation does not
increase, women have to deal increasingly more with the constraints of their double
role as professionals and mothers. Because, increasing number of working women
at least leads way for some legal arrangements in favour of women.
Professional women, as those holding superior positions in the work places, should
not be considered merely working women. Rather, they are the ones having a
specific goal for a career, which will carry them upwards in their work. Thus, at
least the requirements demanded to have a profession are met by these women.
According to Catherine Hakim, women choose to combine work and family
responsibilities, as sex-role preferences are not altered by higher education.
Although she is right that the majority of women try to combine both their family
45
and their work roles, rather than choosing one instead of the other, it is problematic
to define this as a ‘choice’ without discussing the sex-role preferences that do not
change with the changing conditions.
As this study is particularly about the experiences of professional women becoming
mothers through their child-caring practice; their experiences about their decision
on the period to become mothers, way to give birth and their ways of learning to
mother will be covered in this part of the study.
4.1. Planning the Child
Beck-Gernsheim (2002:52) points to the growing number of ‘late parents’,
especially women, who decide to have the first child at a rather advanced age.
Although there may be many reasons underlying this decision, “in any event, the
empirical evidence is that what used to be the most natural thing in the world is
more and more an undertaking that requires long-term consideration and
calculation”. Among the women I have an interview with,
nci, who gave birth at
the youngest age had a child at 28. Although they stated their marriage had a more
important effect on their decision to have a child, the one, who had her son at the
latest age stated: “Giving birth at this late age is also related with my concerns
about the career. I mean, economically. Despite being married, I am not dependent
on my husband. This point has always been very important for me. I should say
this; I gave birth when I thought that I could raise my child by myself. I gave birth,
when I could look after my child on my own.” This emphasis on the being
independent from the father was not seen in the other women. None of the other
interviewees stated about their own economical wellbeing for raising children, the
family’s economical position was stressed by some of them as an important
determinant to have a child. However, reaching an economical prosperity was
generally stated as being mentioned by the husbands, because they are generally
being the financial organisers of the families even in the case of dual-earner
couples. Traditional division of labour between men and women within the
46
household, where men are responsible from generating income and women from
organising domestic tasks, do seem to have an effect in the way decisions are taken.
However, as
nci was one of the women occupying the higher level positions in her
organisation compared to the others, she might have the chance to have such a view
through her own economical well being depending on her career. On the other
hand, she was the only one telling that she had dreamed about rearing a child on her
own before. These individual characteristics may always differ among the
interviewees, however
nci’s stress about her worries after the birth points at a more
general situation. She stated that she has been worrying about her career since her
son was born as she needed to concentrate on different things rather than just on the
career. She said she was interrupted by the constraints of her mother work in the
workplace.
As mothers continue to be the primary carers, they have to be ones most responsible
from their children. As Suzan Lewis (1991:195) states the ideal mother is socially
constructed as the one, who does not work outside the home, or whose paid work is
restricted. Besides, the dominant beliefs surrounding the world of work, where they
try to survive, are based on traditional male values and tend to preclude the
opportunity for substantial involvement in childcare. These professional women,
who at least succeed to enter in the business world, in which the entry requirements
are determined in gendered terms, have to continue their fight in order to survive in
this world especially when they become mothers. In this regard, the case is not only
the working mothers and their constraints. According to Oakley (1974:210), the
important factor is not the change in the labour force participation rate of women;
they have generally participated in the economically productive life of the society.
“The essential variables so far as children are concerned are the quality of the care
they received and the mother’s attitudes to her job, not the fact of employment on
its own.” However, this should not be thought like women choose to be more
active in their work today. As professionalisation as an ideological constraint makes
the competition in order to determine the specialised and differentiated activities
stricter, the rules of the game changes and women have to play in accordance with
47
these rules, which are not in favour of them. Lewis (1991:197) states that since
industrialisation, paid work has become to be organised around the needs of men,
with the assumption that they are not involved in domestic activities. Especially in
the case of pregnancy, the period where women cannot work for at least a period of
time, women have to get the responsibility to organise their time.
Zerrin stated that she waited to have her managerial position before giving birth to
her first child. She said she had waited to gain experience in her work and she said
it was easier to arrange her tasks when she had this position. “When you become a
manager, you are able to organise your own work, you can make your own
programme. It was also the right time economically,” said Zerrin. The one, who has
to make the planning of the child, is also the woman, not man. “My husband did not
have to make any planning. I will bear the children and rear them. It is not a
situation that will disturb my husband. In the pregnancy period and in the first years
of the child, it will negatively affect my work. Thus it is better to be planned by me.
We made plans together to have how many children to have, at which ages, etc.
However the period was planned by me. In which months I am freer, when I can
give birth without affecting my work, were all thought by me. The right time
depends on my work.” Although Zerrin waited to be manager in order to organise
her work for the child, she has been hiring a live-in childminder as she might work
late. Besides, even planning the date of birth according to the point occupied in
company hierarchy does not point to an extensive autonomy. She was also among
two interviewees, who had to go back to work earlier compared to the other women
using their unpaid leaves. The similarity of these two is being at the upper level
positions that intensifies their roles in the decision making process and their feeling
of responsibility deriving from this role. Thus, waiting to be a manager in order to
have a much more autonomy to organise their private life, it brings new
responsibilities. They should calculate all the advantages and disadvantages of the
right time to give birth in order not to have any problems in their professional work.
Lewis (1991:200) mentions about a research, where mothers reported that they had
been exposed to explicit pressures by other people at work to conform to the
48
traditional maternal role. “Typically, this took the form of the pressure on pregnant
women to believe that they would change their mind about returning to work once
the baby was born, and criticism of new mothers who did return to employment.”
Thus, in order to show their attachment to work, women have to turn back to work
earlier than they want. Although interviewees did not mention about the fact that
they were criticised for being guilty as they came back to work; the sense of guilt
among mothers, which is triggered by these open or hidden criticism, is observed
among them manifesting itself in many different ways from their stress in the work
place to the choice of nannies.
Extreme case of the planning of the pregnancy is seen in the planning of the date of
birth. Individualisation drive of the modernity forms a life that has to be lived as a
planning project (Beck-Gernsheim, 2002:43). Even the time and place to have
children are parts of a planned life. This drive of modernity coming together with
the occupational constraints force women to keep pace with this planned life. One
other interviewee Derya, who had to plan even her date of birth according to her
work schedule, told that conditions in her working place were very suitable as she
had been working there for years when she planned to have a child. However, as
her job was a seasonal one and as the peak season was winter time she planned her
deliver time to be in May. She even had to go back to work in November as she was
called although she wanted to be on leave for a longer period.
According to the Article No. 74 of the Labour Law, working women have the right
for a maternity leave of 16 weeks in total, 8 weeks before the birth and the rest after
the birth. Pregnant women have the right to work until three weeks before the birth
if there are no problems in their health. In this case, the remaining weeks are added
to the ones to be used following the birth. All women I have interviewed with told
that they worked till the birth and preferred to be on leave after they give birth.
They generally had had the chance to be at home after birth for a longer time than
their legal right for maternity leave. However Zerrin and Ayse, ones occupying
higher level positions, and Derya, who was mentioned above, said they had to go
49
back to work two months after the birth. Zerrin said she did not want to have a
conflict with the executives. She said she wanted to use all her official leave after
the birth; however the executives did not want her to be on leave for such a long
time. Thus, she had to go back to work two months after the birth of her child.
Feeling like not preferring to have an argument with the executives is the
consequence of the insecurity felt in the professional works, despite the profession
the employees have. Women experience this insecure working environment more as
they have the need to be off work especially during and after pregnancy. Besides, as
Lewis (1991:201) expresses “the myth of motherhood as women’s occupation spills
over in the workplace to inform the stereotypical view that motherhood always
takes precedence over paid work, and hence that mothers are lack occupational
commitment and ambition”. They should act in order to show their commitment to
work and thus do not want to have any argument in the work place because of their
mother work.
The interviewees expressing that they had not experienced any problem with the
work place were the ones who had been working in the same place or in the same
sector for a quite a long time. Aylin stated that it was not important whether she had
changed her job or not, the important thing was whether she had been working in
the same sector and gained experience. She could only decide to become a mother
after working in the same sector for years and proved herself through gaining
experience. Aslı also expressed that she waited some time to have experience in
her work. This may also be thought as proving their commitment to the work place
and their expertise in the profession they have been exercising. They need time to
develop this feeling in their working environment and thus plan their time to
become mother at advanced ages.
Fatos, who was one of the interviewees with two children, said she had problems
while giving birth to her second child as she was occupied in a higher level position
at the time. She said she had worked nearly till the delivery day. She told that she
had even asked the doctor whether s/he could delay the birth, although she could
50
not persuade the doctor. The doctor said she was 35, quite a late age to have a child
and should not delay it. This might be seen contradictory with the statement of
Zerrin, who preferred to have a child when she became the manager. However, as it
was mentioned above, being occupied in a higher level position, which means an
increase in the responsibilities of the professionals, might also prevent from taking
personal decisions, despite the increase in their autonomy.
Lewis (1991:202) argues that the lack of commitment to work assumed to be the
characteristic of all mothers, informs perceptions of individual women with
children, even in the face of manifest commitment and competence, and often
influences promotion decisions. For instance, Ayça told that she was asked whether
she planned to have a baby, when she was promoted in her work place. “I told them
that we did not plan at the moment; we left it to time; we might have a baby in the
future. One week later I learned that I was pregnant. I had been working in the
company for just six weeks, I promoted, and they asked me whether I was planning
to have a child and I said no. Then I learned I was pregnant. I did not tell them at
first, I did not tell them for three months. Then I had to tell them after three months,
I told them that I learned it newly. I disguised the facts.” Çigdem told me that she
was not asked such a question in the workplace where she has been recently
working, however she faced with that question in the previous job interviews she
attended. As the commitment and competence are defined in male terms, as Lewis
states, women generally face to these kinds of problems in the work place.
All these show that, these professional women who give birth at advanced ages,
have to decide about their working conditions, economical wellbeing and positions
in the occupational hierarchy. Although these are not mentioned as the most
important points considered while deciding to be a mother, they have to pay
attention to these facts. Even the planning of the pregnancy period and the date of
giving birth is a crucially important for women in order not to suffer from any
problem in their professional career. In addition to the ones experienced direct
interruption to their decisions for giving birth in terms of asking while hiring or
51
delivering promotion, the most common one is the control on their own
professional career, in order to prevent it from being affected from pregnancy or
mothering, which they also want to experience. However, this personal control of
arranging the time of birth and organising the maternity leave should not be thought
as an individual choice as they are deriving from the constraints women feel in the
work places. On the one side, this is affected from the professions and working
places having a gendered character, which positions women out. On the other side,
this is related with the motherhood ideology perceiving women as the primary
carers and thus defining their priorities regardless of their individual preferences,
and by this way supporting the gendered ideology at work places.
Planning and control do not end with the arrangements on the time of giving birth.
“Pregnancy is not simply a natural process today; it calls for awareness,
responsibility and special instruction and if necessary for genetic advice” (Beck-
Gernsheim, 2002:55). Following the planning of the time to give birth, pregnancy
periods also continue to be experienced through planning the way, the place to give
birth. They continue to be totally active in their pregnancy period, however they
continue to be dependent on the doctors for this time.
4.2. Pregnancy and Birth
Analysing motherhood experiences of women should start from their pregnancies
and childbirth experiences, which are also affected from the same structural
constraints affecting the mothering of women. Finding out that nearly all women I
have interviewed with had caesarean births, draws me to analyse the situation
through medicalisation of childbearing, first.
Childbirth is one of the most important experiences throughout the lives of women.
Regardless of the ideology making women the ‘real’ when they give birth, this is a
unique experience that can be related to nature without doubt. However, this natural
process is started to be experienced differently with the developing technology.
52
Even the definition of “natural” has changed. As quoted in Lazarus (1994:27) from
an article in The New York Times, “the doctors changed the definition of natural
birth to include any birth in which the mother is awake and delivers vaginally.”
Vaginal birth as stated to be the normal one is thought as natural without
considering the technology involved in it. “This model dictates that birth must be
managed by advanced technology, such as electronic fetal monitoring or
ultrasonography.” (Lazarus, 1994:27) Childbirth in modernised societies has
become almost emblematic of the phenomenon of medicalisation, whereby many
different technologies are used to monitor, control and overpower the women’s
body as Zadoroznyj (1999: 267) stated. Lazarus (1994:25) believes biomedicine is
both a forceful practice and powerful ideology. Liamputtong (2005: 244) notes birth
is no longer seen as a natural event for many women, rather it should be managed
by using technological interventions. These three theoreticians all pointed the
importance of social class in women’s experience of childbirth. By comparing
working class and middle class women’s experiences,3 they pay attention to both
medical hegemony and social class.
Blaxter’s fatalism-activism dualism is mentioned by all theoreticians mentioning
social class differences in childbirth. It is argued that middle class individuals are
more active in their orientations and practice and they have a stronger sense of
control compared to the working class individuals who tend to be more fatalistic.
(Blaxter, 1990) This argument is seemed to be proved by the researches on working
class and middle class women during their experiences of pregnancy and childbirth.
Zadoroznyj argues social class has a strong influence in the shaping of identity;
however she states the childbirth experience, which is a critical reflexive moment to
many women’s lives, can transcend the differences between social classes.
Middle class women tended to take a consciously activist approach to planning
the management of their delivery, and expressed quite clear ideas about their
hopes and aspirations for their births. They consciously selected their
obstetrician, hospital, pain relief, birth plan, and other aspects of the birth
3 Lazarus divides the group of women it analysed into three: lay middle class women, health
professionals who are also middle class abd poor women.
53
setting. They did this using a variety of sources of information, including
talking to a range of knowledgeable people, reading, visiting hospital facilities,
and attending childbirth education classes. (Zadoroznyj, 1999:276)
Lazarus (1994:31) mentioning in her study the childbirth experiences of middle
class women stated that those women had planned pregnancies and had far greater
access than poor women to the information on both birth and medical procedures.
They read extensively on birth and took birth preparation courses.
Zadoroznyj (1999) states that although the activist orientation of middle class
women is common, they differ in their subscription to particular discourses of either
natural or technocratic birth. She finds out in her research that a large proportion is
subscribed to the “natural” childbirth approach. These women are defined as the
ones who want to manage their birth totally by themselves.
There are also others sceptical about the notion of “natural” birth. According to this
second group of women, technical intervention, in particular epidural pain relief,
allow the control of pain and this is their own behaviour. Lazarus (1994:34) also
states that control takes different meanings for different middle class women. “For
some it meant involvement in decision making, asserting oneself, exercising some
power over what happened. Some women had definite views about technical
interventions. … Control for some meant few or no interventions.” Control is
related with being activist in decision making process about themselves.
Zadoroznyj’s research (1999) suggests that women’s orientation to control over the
management of their first birth is influenced by their social class. She argues that
middle class women can exercise more choice and control on their birth than
working class women and the material resources of these women enable this choice.
They have the chance to choose the hospital to give birth and the doctor, they have
the access to many different source of information where they can gain necessary
knowledge about the process.
54
In the research of Zadoroznyj, she also concludes that the first birth creates a
significant shift in women’s identity and their approach to birth. She believes the
orientation towards birth is not fixed. However, it should not be forgotten that
although working class women may gain experience in the first birth, if their
material conditions, which are also mentioned as important by Zadoroznyj herself,
are not changed; it is hard to tell that they have the same characteristics with middle
class women. As Lazarus (1994:36) mentions about these material sources, “With
greater access to information and wider variety of choices, it was easier for them to
attend birth preparation classes, to pay a baby-sitter, to transport themselves to a
doctor, and to read about childbirth preparation.”
Lazarus equates the middle class and working class women in their limitedness
against the degree of control. “Knowledge itself could not give them authority, nor
could they know all the contingencies of the birth process or of institutional care.
Despite all their preparations, then, they were cognizant of and even willing to
subordinate themselves to medical authority.” (Lazarus, 1994:37) They cannot
control the birth itself. Thus, middle class women give emphasis on choosing their
doctor and the hospital they will give a birth. However choices and expectations are
limited for lower class women.
Liammuttong mentions about the preference of middle class women’s caesarean
sections without believing it as loosing control over their own body. Middle class
women do hesitate to take the risk. In Liammuttong’s study, women perceive risk
as an uncertainty in the safety of their birth. Thus, “to reduce these uncertainties, a
caesarean as a possibility of security was chosen” (Liammuttong, 2005:266)
Caesarean also started to be applied commonly in Turkey. According to the results
of Turkey Demographic and Health Survey 2003, conducted by Ministry of Health
and Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies, in the last five years, three
out of ten first births had been conducted through caesarean method. One out of
three births in Istanbul, Eastern Marmara and Eastern Blacksea had been conducted
55
through caesarean. Ministry of Health declared in a circular titled Birth
Management Directory published on October 18, 2007 that the rate of caesarean
found out in the above mentioned report was above the rates of the developed
countries, World Health Organization’s suggested rates and the targets of the
Ministry.4 The data collected by me also supports these findings although my aim
is not to generalize of course. Except two interviewees, all others gave birth by
caesarean section. One of the women, who had normal birth had been living in
France when she gave birth to her child. She said this was common in France and
doctors did not prefer caesarean, unless there is a medical necessity. In order to
understand the application in Turkey and the reaction of the women against this
mainstream understanding, the statement of the other one, who has been living in
Turkey when she had normal birth was very interesting. Firstly, she blamed women,
who did not give birth through normal ways. She believes caesarean is not
supported, it is women’s choice, they do not want to experience that travail.
If a woman wants to have a normal birth and there is no need for a medical
intervention, doctors encourage them for normal birth. My doctor did this. My
doctor told me that she could not understand why women asked for the
caesarean rather than the normal way of giving birth. ‘I cannot understand this’
she told me. She is the chief doctor in a maternity hospital.5 (Zeynep)
She was feeling proud of being strong enough for normal birth and she related the
increasing rate of caesarean directly to the women becoming weaker compared to
the previous generations. “When I told that I had a normal labour to my friends,
they said Bravo!. You were a ‘woman like a man’, a Turkish woman, exactly, they
told. I was happy. I mean having a normal birth becomes something to be
appreciated.” said Zerrin. Telling experiences related with the physical strength
through sexist terms is very commonly experienced in the everyday language,
where the patriarchy can be easily seen. However telling a womanly experience by
4http://www.saglik.gov.tr/TR/BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFF1A9547B61DAFFE2A48EAC6
BEB7ADF984
5 Zerrin was the last women I interviewed with. She was the only one experiencing normal birth in
Turkey and she said her doctor was a woman by herself. As this had not been considered as an
important criteria, it was not asked other women whether they visited male or female doctors. Further
researches should be conducted be paying attention to the sex of the doctor.
56
saying “woman like a man” is ironic as it shows the linguistic power of patriarchal
ideology.
The observations of Zerrin, which were probably mentioned in order to distinguish
her from the other ‘weak’ women, are not in the same direction with mine. None of
the women I interviewed with told that they had not wanted normal birth because of
the travail. The majority told that they had wanted normal birth; however a physical
problem related with the child’s health prevented them to do so.
“I was waiting for normal birth. However the cord was curled around the neck of
the baby. It wasn’t risky before, however I had to go to the hospital for each and
every minor travail. Thus I decided to have caesarean. I realised during the delivery
that it was the right decision. Normal delivery did not seem to be possible.” (Aylin)
“It was caesarean. My doctor did not suggest normal birth, his head was too
large.”(Özge)
“I had preferred normal birth, however it was caesarean. I am happy as it was a lasttime
intervention, Derin came by herself. We, at least, did not fixed the day of
delivery beforehand.” (Aslı)
“I had been asking normal birth, however it was caesarean. He was weighty.
However I believe it was also the doctor’s preference. I agreed actually.” (
nci)
“I wanted normal birth first, I waited till the end. Then we went to the hospital
when I started to travail. However the baby started to suffer from low oxygen and
the doctor took it through caesarean.” (Ayça)
In her research on Brazilian women, McCallum (2005) finds out that newlypregnant
women do not demand pre-programmed caesarean from the doctors, most
of them tell that they would prefer vaginal delivery. As quoted above from the
57
interviewees’ own words, women generally stated that although they wanted
vaginal birth, they ‘had to’ have a caesarean because of a medical problem. They
did not want to take a risk. As Lazarus (1994:27) states, they may not want to be
blamed if they do not have a ‘perfect’ birth when they do not do everything, which
is defined by Lazarus as meaning everything availing herself of technological birth.
Perhaps Derya explained the above mentioned reason where caesarean was needed:
“It was caesarean. This is the trend now. In fact, I did not prefer it. I had been
thinking about and asking for a normal delivery, but I was not totally against
caesarean. When my baby was four and a half months, doctor said the water in the
uterus was so low. Thus, the doctor wanted caesarean, however they all find
excuses.” It is hard to reach an argument like Derya’s in this research, as the
medical necessities of caesarean are unquestionable ones within the extent of this
research. This may be in accordance with the analysis of Lazarus, because women
stand as a subordinate position in relation with the doctors. “In biomedicine, control
is limited by the power held by medical profession and more and more by medical
institutions.” (Lazarus, 1994:30) However, women paying attention to the
necessities show that they do not accept the situation of being controlled. They took
the decision of having a vaginal birth, however “had to” accept caesarean because
of biological necessities. Liamputtong (2005:258) argues women choose or agree to
have caesarean operations as a means to avoid any risk, which might be posed to
the wellbeing and safety of their babies.
At this point, the statements of the those, who said they had chosen to have
caesarean may also be also significant. Berrin was one of the interviewees telling
that she wanted to have caesarean.
I think babies are not pressurised during caesarean. The shape of their heads
become better, they are not exposed to any complication. 80-90 pct of the
women around me experience caesarean and they are pleased. I might though if
it was general anaesthesia, however it was epidural and thus there was no risk as
I both could see it and did not feel just below my belt. My doctor was
supporting caesarean. S/he tells that although women generally want to have a
normal birth in the first months, then they want caesarean. (Berrin)
58
Like all others except one of them, the anaesthetic used in the caesarean was given
as an epidural, which allowed women to stay awake. This was mentioned by all
women although I did not ask whether it was epidural or not. This seems to be the
point where caesarean is more akin to normal birth. Women see the baby first and
thus they consciously feel the experience of giving birth. This is understood as they
mentioned this feeling rather than the harmful effects of anaesthetic. Çigdem said
she wanted caesarean in order to see her baby first. Except the one giving birth in
France and Fatos, all the others had given birth in private hospitals in Istanbul.
Fatos, who gave birth in a public hospital, said she had the controls done in a
private hospital before the birth. She said she did not want be controlled in a public
hospital as they did not deliver a high-quality service. As Liamputtong (2005) also
mentions, middle class women have more financial resources to enable them
actively seek care from private doctors or doctors whom they believe they can trust.
I wanted normal birth. If I was supported, I might have a normal birth. My
husband did not support me, he said there was no difference between vaginal
birth and caesarean, he said I could not handle it. My doctor wanted me to take
the decision, however s/he did not support normal birth, either. I wanted
epidural as I wanted to see my baby first. My father is a doctor; my mother’s
cousin is a gynaecologist. They told it would be better to have a general
anaesthesia. An anaesthesia expert also said it would be better if it was general.
Thus, my father warned me that I should do what the doctors told me. What
doctors tell is important, if I trust them, it is important what they say. (Çigdem)
In this statement of Çigdem, another point also draws attention. She has the social
capital, which allows her to contact with related people, from whom she can deliver
information. These women have both the economical and social capital to be used
in acting as controlled while delivering birth.
Finally, planning mentality of these women seems to play a major role in their
choices for birth. Among the ones, who said they had chosen to have a caesarean,
there are some who mentioned about the limitedness of their and/or their husbands’
time. Besides, doctors following the pregnancy are demanded to take place in the
birth. They should plan the time and place of the birth in order to feel safe. They
59
also feel like they are obliged to do it so, because of the constraints of the
workplace.
Berrin said they had a limited maternity leave, thus they should plan it beforehand.
She stated that she demanded to use her leave after the birth, thus she wanted to
know the date of birth. Berrin’s doctor also told her that nowadays most women
demanded this. Although Begüm had not been working while she gave birth to her
son, she requested her husband and her own doctor be present at birth, thus
preferred to have a caesarean. Özge, who was suggested caesarean by her doctor,
determined the date of the birth according to the work schedule of her husband. “It
would have been at the end of the month. My husband is a banker. He said it was
very busy at the end of the month. Thus, I delivered birth on 26th,” said Özge. Fatos
expressed the reason behind her choice for a private hospital to be controlled before
the birth, as she had no time for waiting to see the doctor. “The system is like this in
public hospitals, however, we have no time to wait,” says she.
All these planning and control over their birth is also seen in their pregnancy
period. These women occupied in professional positions, adopt their professional
role in the business world in their world of mothering and even pre-mothering.
4.3. Learning to mother
Even planning their date of giving birth according to their work schedules and their
understanding for a perfect birth by the presence of a pre-visited doctor and
demanded hospital, these professional women also organise their time
professionally. Together with this organisation mentality, they also pay great
attention to ‘learning to mother’. They professionally learn to mother. This
professionalisation means not using traditional learning methods, which are
generally transformed from mother-to-daughter.
60
This professionalisation of the institution of motherhood is mentioned by Gatrell in
her book named Hard Labour: The Sociology of Parenthood, by borrowing the term
from Beck and Beck-Gernsheim. Middle class women also have access to internet
and are able to afford to buy glossy magazines (Gatrell, 2005:62). Such a
professionalisation about their own practice of mothering6, is seen primarily in their
way to be informed. Professional women start reading books about child care
during their pregnancy and continue to read as the child grows up. Ayse, whose son
is three and a half years old, stated that their friends continued to bring them books
related with child caring for their birthdays as a gift. Özge said: “We read all the
books about child rearing.” There are some, who especially stressed that they
followed foreign books and websites. Aslı stated “We are interested in psychology.
I also follow foreign writers. I read the books of child development experts from
different countries. … There are same and different understandings of Americans
and Indians. There are concurrent points. It is important to reach the truth.” They
are informed about the child caring and the majority of them use the internet as
their fundamental source of information. As Gatrell pointed out the close relation of
these women with internet and their ability to buy many books and magazines were
directly related with their middle-class position. As Berrin stated there were a lot of
information around and it was hard to decide which one was correct. It was very
easy for these women to reach the information they needed and this information
was very different than the information received from their mothers. They feel they
should know everything about these changing practices of child caring and follow
the general tendency. Beck-Gernsheim (2002:53) defines the period as the milieu of
“new women”, who – with many ideas from psychology, childrearing manuals and
self-help literature – want to do everything consciously and conscientiously. Two of
the women stated that their mothers grew them up by reading books. This shows the
importance put on the children and their role in child rearing followed through the
6 The above-mentioned proffesionalisation is the one demanded from the woman to look after the
children.
61
“safest” way.
nci just stated that the books read by her mother were very different
than the ones she has been reading.7
Apart reading the books and using the internet,
nci and Aslı stated that they
participated in the pregnancy classes. They both stressed that their husbands also
followed the majority of the courses. Aslı said as her mother died long ago, she
should learn what to do by herself. However
nci, who had the chance to receive
help from her mother when her son was born, said her mother had forgotten many
things and she felt comfortable about meeting the needs of the child as she attended
this course. I visited the course in its place and attended one of the lessons. This
private course is given by a pediatric nurse in Bebek, an upper-class district in
Istanbul. This course seems to teach what women should do before the birth, while
giving birth and during the first months after the birth. Practical things like holding
a baby, changing the diaper, how to breastfeed are taught. These had traditionally
been taught by the elderly relatives to the young mothers. However, this learning
process of mothering has recently created a sector targeting pregnant women for
making them to ‘buy’ the necessary information. Through buying information to
become a mother, women are indirectly tried to be shown the ways to be a good
mother by being informed at the best way from experts. I should here mention
about my observations in the course. Besides teaching women how to mother, the
pediatric nurse in the course delivers information about what women need in
pregnancy and after the baby is born. They are encouraged to buy much stuff,
changing from a pillow for holding the baby better to the different kinds of bottles
for feeding the baby. This shows how the pregnancy and baby-caring become a
giant sector meeting the ‘needs’ of the women or ‘creating’ needs for them. The
point that should not be forgotten is that the target of all these pregnancy classes,
stores for pregnant women and the baby-shops are high-income, well-educated
7 One point should possibly is the same in the books read by the mothers of these women and the
ones read now. It is the gendered characteristic of the written manuals for child rearing. Harriet
Marshall (1991) argues that; in theory, the ‘expert’ publications offer advice to both parents but that
the directives given are addressed specifically to women, and contain prescriptive messages about
how ‘good’ mothers should behave (quoted in Gatreell, 2005, p. ). The examination of the books read
by these women exceeds the limits of this study. This comparison with the old-published books and
the recent ones may be the subject of further studies.
62
professional women, who are tried to be analyzed in this study. Thus, all these
should be defined through a class-based analysis, rather than general
understandings, which have been changing for mothering. There are many other
women, who continue to experience motherhood in so-called traditional ways, and
mothering should be paid attention as a classed notion, including all the pre- and
post-birth activities.
On the other hand, there are other women, among my interviewees, who said that
they did not attend pregnancy classes. They are actually forming the majority of the
women I interviewed with. Women, who said they did not attend such courses, as a
first point stated that they did not have time for it. Some of them stressed that they
did not even want to attend such courses. Aylin said she preferred to use traditional
methods in growing up her baby, however she added, Internet was a good source
for information. Çigdem said she preferred to follow her instincts and also stressed
that she used internet sources much. Although traditional methods are mentioned to
be followed, they feel like they should stress that they follow another sources for
information. Zerrin was an example for understanding the child-focused
motherhood, as she stated that she did not make anything to facilitate her own work,
she preferred to pay attention to the needs of her child and made the necessary
things for the health of the child. She considered these courses as to the benefit of
the mother. She mentioned about the sports exercised during pregnancy in order to
make the delivery easy. All these, including the pregnancy classes in her mind,
were for pregnant women, not for children; and as she had limited time from work
she preferred to do the necessary things for her children, like visiting the doctor
once in fifteen days. Thus, whether they participate in a pregnancy class or not does
not mean a lot on its own as they continue to be informed through various ways.
It is understood from the discourses of these women that not all but some of them
had contacts to a pedagogue either directly or indirectly. Gatrell uses the term
parenting-mania of Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, which will be used to analyse
primarily the child-rearing practices of middle class parents in the third chapter in a
63
detailed way, defining the mentality in which ‘expert advice’ is trusted at and taken
seriously by women who do not live close to their mothers. “The group of women
most ‘highly susceptible’ to the influence of ‘expert parenting texts’ are middle
class women who are well-educated city dwellers, expecting their first child at a
fairly advanced age” (Gatrell, 2005:61) are the group of women Gatrell makes
interviews for her research, which almost defines the group of women in my own
research. As this expert-advice may be received from the authors writing in
magazines and publishing books, even the paediatric nurses in the pregnancy
classes, as mentioned above; these women may be even in direct relation with the
pedagogues. During the interviews, women may refer to a book they read or a
pedagogue they met in a course. Derya said she did wrong by sending her daughter
to school before she was three and she said this was told by a doctor. The ones,
whose children go to creches, tell about the pedagogues at the school, who control
and follow the development of the children closely. They meet with the parents in
certain periods to deliver information about their children. All these give the parents
the confidence that their children are controlled by the experts in a professional
way. Ayça defined the teacher in the kindergarten as a ‘woman like a pedagogue’.
She also stressed that they followed what the doctor told about attending school or
play gardens while taking decisions about their son. Aslı told all the steps they had
taken while rearing their child by giving reference to a pedagogue she met in the
pregnancy class. When she realized that she had been mentioning about that
pedagogue so much, she told by herself that “So it seems I was influenced by that
pedagogue much.” As Glenn (1994:17) states “mothers’ traditional wisdom, passed
down from older, experienced mothers, was discredited as useless superstition and
possibly harmful nonsense by ‘scientific experts’, who churned out huge volumes
of advice to mothers.”
If the above-defined professionalisation is remembered at this point again, this
professionalisation continues in the way of learning motherhood for the
professional working mothers. They are fully informed about the way to mother and
they pay great attention to the expert knowledge. However, this way of mothering
64
cannot be understood apart from the class-characteristic of these women. They have
the great access to any kind of information and the ways to gain this information.
Thus, professional acting is also a classed act in motherhood of these women.
Besides, the dominant discourse on motherhood also has an effect in these women’s
intent to learn mothering, although they may not be aware of this fact at all. As
Vincent and Martin (2002:94) mention, the ‘good mother’ is highly attentive and
sensitive to the needs of her children, put her children’s needs first, is always there
when needed, and provides a stimulating learning environment for her children
from the time they are born. In order to meet all these requirements to become a
‘good mother’, professional women use all their resources for learning to be the
best.
The overburden of these women observed in all mentioned cases such as organising
their professional work, controlling their pregnancies and learning mothering
activities through many different resources turn them into superwomen. Vincent
and Martin (2002:94) states the ‘good mother’ is also seems like she is able to
successfully organise her time and other roles as wife, home-maker, and
increasingly as a paid worker. “This discourse is responsible for constructing
successful ‘good’ mothers as being ‘superwomen’ who can efficiently fulfil all
these demanding roles simultaneously.” As Lewis (1991:197) argues this image of
‘supermother’ in her words, is as oppressive as the ideology of stay-at-home
mother, because “it implies that women can comply with the cultural prescriptions
of a good mother and a good worker, without modifying the demands of either”.
Although this ideological effect will be more apparently seen in the practices of
mothering that will be mentioned in detail in the following chapter, it is important
to remind it now in order to show that its effect even starts from the pregnancy
period.
To sum up, professional women’s experience of stepping into motherhood is
entirely affected by the gendered characteristic of the work place and professional
65
world, motherhood ideology, professionalisation and their position in the class
structure. They have to plan the period of their pregnancy in order to survive in the
world of work, which is characterised according to patriarchal values. Motherhood
ideology, which defines them primarily as the mothers rather than workers or
professionals, supports this understanding of the business world. Thus women have
to organise their time to become mother not primarily but generally through
external constraints like the necessity to prove their commitment to their profession.
Their control over their lives continues during the pregnancy period. However the
said control has a class character, like the control on the way followed to learn
motherhood has. They have the needed resources to manage their way of giving
birth and also the way of learning motherhood. However, not just their classes, but
also their professional understanding, which has also a class character of its own,
determine their way of actions. Professionalism, as a general ideology, also
determines the understanding giving great emphasis on expert knowledge. This has
its effect on these women’s trust to doctors before, while and after their birthgiving.
It also continues in learning the mothering practices, in shape of parenting
manuals and pregnancy classes.
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CHAPTER 5
CHILD CARING WITH THE ‘HELP’ OF OTHERS
Although professional women are generally defined through their role in the public
world as having distinguishing characteristic in their specialised area of work,
motherhood continues to be one of the important characteristics of them, like all
other women. Hayat Kabasakal (1998:311) in her research on the upper level
managerial women in Turkey found out that those were married women with
children. Although general tendency among career women in western countries is
childlessness, this is not the case in Turkey. As they choose to be both mother and
working women at the same time, it may be indicated that motherhood identity
continues to be a determining characteristic of them.
Professional women’s construction of motherhood identity can directly be observed
from their relations with the childminder and with the father. Especially their
relationship with the childminder has important implication for the definition of
motherhood for them. Through distinguishing themselves from other women and
exercising control over them, they try to demonstrate and define how a mother
should behave. Besides, they constitute a professional relationship with the
childminder. Their relations with the husbands are also important for their sense of
motherhood. They continue to be the parent of first contact and make almost all the
arrangements between their husbands and their children.
5.1. Relations with the Childminder
Emergence of the dual-earner couples, who want to have a child and continue to be
in the labour market at the same time, has eventually created a need for people who
would look after their children. Previously, according to the traditional division of
labour in the household, the wife used to be a mother and homemaker whereas the
67
husband used to be a bread winner. However, as women started to take active roles
in the labour market, this traditional division of labour has changed to a certain
extent as they cannot be stay at home as full-time carers of their children. The new
domestic division of labour has not ended up with the equal sharing of domestic
tasks. Rather the responsibility of child caring is primarily imposed upon women
again. In that case third parties, usually female, have been involved either to look
after children or to take care of the domestic chores at home. A relationship has
been formed between two women from different classes, namely the child minder
and the biological mother. The organisation of different tasks to be executed by the
childminder and the biological mother herself has a great effect in professional
women’s formation of motherhood identity through differentiating herself from the
childminder and placing her role as the primary one.
Rothman (1989) defines the mothering depending on the child caring practices
performed by any person without taking into account of the genetic tie of the person
with the child. As this mothering role can be and in particular circumstances should
be substituted, the genetic tie between the mother and the child starts to loose its
importance, which becomes a problem for the biological mothers. As Rothman
(1989:95) states, people in our society has been substituting for many aspects of
mothering for a long time. “Upper-class women have bought the services of lowerclass
women to provide one or another mothering service for their children. Or it
might more accurately be said in some circumstances; upper-class men have bought
the services of lower-class women to supplement the services of their wives.” Thus,
if mothering can be formulated simply as the caring activities for dependent
children like Ruddick (1994) defines; another woman starts to play this role within
the household by selling her labour power. This exposes an employer-employee
relationship between two women, which has been continuing in a professional way.
Deciding who will be the childminder is an important matter on which women had
many things to tell. Nearly all the respondents agreed that one-to-one care is the
most appropriate for children under three and a half years old while giving
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reference to the writers specialised on childcaring. Hiring a person who will be at
home with the child all the time is an important decision. Hertz and Ferguson
(1995:259) mention about the difference for the women between the stranger in the
home and a stranger in the centre. “The stranger in the centre is constructed as
teaching the child not replacing the function of mother. By calling it a learning
environment day care becomes an enrichment experience not a substitute for
parental care or individualised arrangements.” However, as it will be mentioned in
detail later, this substitutability is tried to be overcome by professional women
through differentiating their role with the childminders’.
Only one of the interviewees, Begüm, was not working while she gave birth to her
son. Although she had not been planning to work after having her child, she started
to work when her son was 15 months old. All the others had been working when
they decided to have a child. As the childminder will be the ‘other’ women in the
house looking after the children, the choice of these women, who will perform the
mothering role, signifies professional women’s understanding of mothering and
formation of their motherhood identities through their relation with these women.
5.1.1 The difference between the relationship formed with the childminder and
the cleaning woman
Defining the substitutable character of the women’s domestic work in general and
the mothering work in particular, Rothman asks the questions of “for which women
are these substitutes available? and “who can afford to hire substitutes for the
various parts of mothering?” The answers of these questions play an important role
in defining the class characteristic of the women, who have the privileges to hire
someone else in order to take place in the labour market without feeling the burden
of their traditional roles. “The situation today is exactly what it has been
historically: women of privilege, wealthy or fairly wealthy women, hiring the
services of poor or fairly poor women. Upper class women can have some of the
privileges of patriarchy” (Rothman, 1989:96).
69
As well as their mothering role, their housewife role also has a substitutable
character. Women with the necessary economical capital, have the opportunity to
hire another woman to do only the housework instead of child caring. The
approaches of women hiring both a woman coming for cleaning and another
coming for child caring have different character. It is ‘putting their children into the
child-minders’ hands’ as Berrin stated; “You pay attention to the smallest details at
that point, you even inspect the finger nails of the woman, because, they will touch
your child. People even think about their furniture in the house while taking
someone as a cleaner. They tell them what they should and should not do in order to
avoid any damages. You leave your child alone with these women.” Özge makes a
distinction even between the people who look after the baby in his/her early years
and those who are responsible from the grown up ones. “As the child grows older,
you start looking for somebody who could become a teacher for the child” she
states. Although for hiring a cleaning woman the necessary qualifications do not
change, the childminder should have to adopt herself to the increasing needs of the
child as s/he gets older.
Rothman (1989:100) mentions a woman, who wants to hire another childminder
when her child grows older as the recent one is not really interested in engaging her
child in intellectual and creative activities. The mother believes these activities to
be increasingly important as her child grows older. Professional mothers demand
their child to grow up in the way they wanted and they prefer childminder to be a
higher-qualified one although they do not require such qualifications from the
women coming for cleaning. Rothman argues that this is related with the men-like
attitude of women, who can buy some of the privileges of their paternity.
Sara, and dozens of women like her I know, are doing what men have long
done. Men left the babies and little children to the warm, neat, nurturant, and
compliant care of women. Men took their sons, as they outgrew the world of
women, the private world, and sent them off the schools, apprenticeships, the
world of men, the public world. The new mother, the managerial mother, is
doing the same thing, only she wants her daughters too to leave the world of
nurturant women and enter into the world of intellect and creativity. (Rothman,
1989:100)
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What Rothman calls as managerial mothers look like very much the professional
mothers analysed for this study. These “new mother” undertakes the managerial
role and she organises the tasks the childminder would be responsible. As Rothman
(1989:101) states, the world of intellect is the place which used to be the world of
men. Thus, she argues “given the expense of a trained nanny, or even a graduate
student live-in, preschool and enriched day care programs becomes the choice for
entry into the world of intellect, what used to be the world of men, the public
world.” Professional women demand these women to be intellectually satisfying in
order to raise their children to be compatible in the world.
The relation with the child-minder is a closer one than with the one coming for
cleaning. However, a maternal relation is not observed even between the childminder
and the mothers. In her study of Kadınların Sınıfı (Women’s Class), Bora
differentiates older women hiring domestics and younger women in terms of their
relationship with the cleaning women and states that maternal relations may
continue to be seen in older women’s power relation with the cleaning women. That
is the closer relationship like the one formed between the mother and daughter or
among sisters. Bora names the relation constructed by younger women as difference
strategies. Professional women interviewed for this study resembles younger
women interviewed by Bora in the sense that they are not also forming a maternal
relation with the childminders and differentiate themselves from the childminders.
However, when their criteria were asked while looking for a child-minder, they
stated about their personal characteristics. Bora (2005:171) argues if the relation
between the cleaning woman and the employer is experienced more like a
mother/daughter (or sisters), personal characteristics of the cleaning women are
given more importance and this covers employer-worker relation. Problem of who
will look after the child while the mother is at work has been one of the major
concerns of the interviews. Even though women are more interested in the personal
characteristic of the child-minder, they do not form a maternal relation with them.
Even among the women preferring to hire live-in child-minders, there is not any
close relation formed between two women. Instead, a professional relation between
71
the child-minders and the mothers is observed. This employer-worker relation is
important for this study as it shows the power relation between the women in
constructing their class positions. The importance of the relation between the
childminder and the mother for the construction of the latter’s motherhood identity
stems from its professional character. It should also be stated that this professional
character has a close relation with the class differences among two women. Mothers
think they have the right to form a professional relation with the childminder by
using the advantage of their class position and they prefer to construct such a
worker-employer relation in order to underline this difference.
Çigdem is the only one among the mothers hiring a live-in child minder. She said
she did not consider the work of the child minder as a professional one; earning
money should not be the aim of those people, she said. She was in search of a new
child-minder in the time of the interview. She said:
I might prefer childminder coming daily as Alp has grown up I have met with a
Turkish childminder recently. She told me that the other mothers paid attention
to her diction while hiring her. She said it was important for them as she would
read books for the child. She tells her qualifications like this. I said these were
not important for me. What is important is affection and good care for my child.
It is important whether you will care for my child.
Although Çigdem told that she did not expect such a professionalisation in the child
care work, the relation between the two women in the house seems having a more
professional employer-worker relation. This is even seen as she demanded from the
grandmother and the women coming for cleaning8 to be at home with the childminder.
Childminder is thought as someone who should be supervised. Besides,
child-minder’s stress on her diction is attractive in its own case. Considering her
diction as a selection criterion, shows how professionalized this hiring childminder
case starts to be. It has the characteristics that are used to be seen in the
requirements of a large company. Thus, professional women both give importance
8 In Çigdem’s case, there is a different relation with the woman coming for cleaning She has been
coming to her house for years as she stated and she mentioned her name as “… Abla” (Sister …).
Such a maternal relation with the cleaning woman is formed just in this case.
72
to the personal characteristics of the childminder and they also ask professional
qualifications, which show that the childminder has a profession in child caring.
However, they want to undertake the primary tasks related to child caring by
themselves as it will be mentioned in detail below.
Zerrin, who wanted the woman coming for cleaning to look after children, stated
“she had been coming for cleaning the house; however she was a clever, informed
and lucid woman” while defining the woman she demanded for looking after her
children.
nci noted about the same point that “I may hug and kiss the person to
look after my child, because she will hug and kiss my child. I may not be very
selective for the woman coming for cleaning my house once a week. I witness that
some employing women treat the child minders badly, they despise them.”
The professionalisation in the relation between the child minders and mothers in
question are inter-related with the professionalisation of the child caring market.
Even they follow a professional path to find the child minder. All women
interviewed with were in relation with the agencies finding carers. Some of them
worked with the women found through agencies, some of them not; however this
need of working mothers seems to form a sector. Although inter-personal relations
used to be applied before, it is just one of the many other ways of finding a
childminder today. Two of the interviewees, who had hired live-in minders first,
found an agency working with a different understanding. I should summarize
working ways of this agency in order to understand the current situation in these
professional agencies and the extensive sector formed in order to meet increasing
need of the working mothers or creating a need to be met by these women.
Mature (the name of the agency) employs home-teachers9 and delivers trainings
about child caring, pedagogy and psychology. I visited the agency and interviewed
with a female employee, who is in charge of home-teachers. Their recruitment
policy includes visiting candidate home teachers in their own houses and meeting
all family members. The educational background of the women to be hired plays an
9 The name given to the child-minders by them.
73
important role; however regardless of their own educational background, all these
women are trained in Mature. The home-teachers’ training continue after they start
to work with families. Home-teachers work in accordance with certain rules
determined by Mature. They do not do any other housework except the ones related
with the child. They cook for the child, they wash the child’s cloths and iron them.
The most important characteristics of these home-teachers are their educative role.
They are responsible from the plays of the children and they create a school-like
environment at home. Their focus is the education to be delivered to the child.
Home-teachers are required to make periodical tests concerning the children.
Home-teacher and the family meet with the experts in Mature once in two months.
In these meetings, the experts ask the parents and the home teacher whether they
have any problems. Home-teachers present the forms they filed about the
development of the child, they also apply some tests in these meetings in order to
control the child. Such professionalisation in this example directly forms the
structure of the relation between home-teacher and the parents. This home-teacher
case should be analysed from different perspectives; first in its representation of
professional understanding of child caring, secondly in the formation of power
structures through the relation between the mother and home-teacher.
The definition of the rules of the work seems to empower the home-teachers as this
limits the potential demands of the mothers from them except their primary work of
child-rearing. However, these women are employed by two parties, Mature in the
first instance and later the parents. Although the expert in Mature pointed out their
aim of protecting home-teachers in the interview, this is the structure of the work
defined by them and it works in favour of the institution most, rather than the hometeacher.
They define the child-caring work within the borders such as not doing any
other housework, just looking after children, not being a live-in minder etc., and
protect the home-teacher within these limits, as these are the company rules of a
professional institution. This is even the reason behind parents choosing them. The
control mechanism on the home-teacher continues with the tests done on the child
in the meetings once in two months. The continuous training of the home-teachers
74
increases the responsibilities of them maybe not in other house works, but directly
in the works about the caring of the child. Mothers’ relation to the home-teachers
greatly decomposed of the maternal relation in this case. However, it is also not a
more equal relation between two professionals; the childminder and the mother.
Aslı, who hired a home-teacher to look after her daughter before she started to go to
school, stated that they were giving written rules to all the child-minders including
the home teacher who came home. Although the work of the home-teacher is a
more professional and has pre-determined rules and has been controlled by Mature
in the meetings with the family; the parents10 deliver their own rules about the child
in a written form to her in order to form their own power and control on the one
they have been receiving service.
Mature case is very important in order to show the professionalisation in the area of
child caring. Professionalisation, as defined in the theory chapter, is a way of
constructing the rules of the work. The expertise needed to have a profession is
defined and people gaining this expertise are called as professionals. Child rearing
is constructed through this professional understanding, where the class character is
not apparent at all. Thus, it becomes unseen that this class character has a very
determining role in reaching and using these services, rather it becomes a
requirement for being a good parent ‘purchasing’ the best for the child. Besides,
professionalisation does not empower the higher class professional women and
lower class professional child minders same. The latter continues to feel the power
of the former as professional women continue to control the work conducted by the
childminder.
To sum up, professional mothers’ criteria for hiring the women to look after their
children imply a distinction between the child minder and the cleaning woman.
They professionally approach to this subject as it is understood from the methods
they use while choosing the childminders and their attitudes towards the
childminders. Mothers want to feel closer to these women just because of their
10 I hesitate to say only mother in here as Aslı formed the sentences like ‘us’. However, it is
understood from another example that she is more strict about the rules than the father.
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closer relation with the children; however employer-worker character of the
relationship continues to prevail. Besides, they demand some sort of
professionalisation in the caring work from the childminder, although they continue
their control over the childminder through direct and indirect ways.
5.1.2. Control over the Childminder
Mothers establish a direct relation with the childminder. They look the alternative
ways to find a childminder and they are more active in the process of choosing
whom to recruit. Women generally used the expression of “I” while telling about
the process of finding childminder and the relation with the childminder, especially
when it is compared with the statements about the choosing of school, which
involves the father as well. Childminder, primarily the live-in ones, are regarded as
the substitutes of the mothers, who are working outside the house. Thus, it seems
like women are the responsible ones to choose the other women to conduct the
work that had been traditionally carried out by the mother herself. But this should
not be understood like these professional women transferred their entire role to the
childminders. Even this choice of the childminder and the organisation of child
caring work cannot be devalued and they should be considered just as the new roles
replacing the full-time caring role. Besides, professional women continue to
perform their mothering role by distinguishing the works to be conducted by the
childminder and by themselves.
Mothers have paid great attention to the direct and indirect control of the
childminder. Direct control seems to be in a way of monitoring her actions in the
house. Indirect way is the control over the attitudes of her to the child, which are
partly mentioned above.
Direct controlling starts in the first months after birth. All the interviewees
expressed that they hired the childminder before they started to work in order to
76
spend more time with her. Thus, they had the chance to observe the childminder
closely when she was working.
If their own mothers live in Istanbul, some of the interviewees prefer their own
mothers to look after the children. There are also others who stated the
disadvantages of a grandmother looking after children. Ayça stated that she would
have preferred her mother to look after her son. She said “although she wouldn’t, I
would prefer her to be at home with the childminder to control her. The caring of
the grandmother may create some disadvantages at some points. She does what she
wants, the childminder does not do.” Mother can be more active while defining the
relation with the childminder, however they cannot act as the same to their own
mothers. Like Ayça, who demands her own mother to be with the childminder in
the house, Çigdem has the chance to receive help from her mother-in-law. Çigdem
told that she had someone coming for cleaning her house for long years.
My house does not need to be cleaned twice a week. However I increased in to
twice, when Alp was born. She is coming to be with the childminder. His
grandmother comes for the other three days. Although you trust to her, a second
eye is a must. At least, they are closer ones. I have known the grandmother (the
mother of her husband) and the woman coming for cleaning for years. I am not
at home and I cannot watch them all the time. They can watch over what I
cannot see. (Çigdem)
Probably, majority of these women have been experiencing the same kind of
control in their work places. They are being monitored in their professional working
place and choose the monitor the work done within the house. It cannot be argued
that professionalism, as an ideology, is free from the power relations in this case.
Someone having a profession may be thought like s/he has greater autonomy.
However, monitoring and controlling continue to be experienced by the ones of the
lower strata despite their professions. In the case of childminders, the professions of
the carers cannot be even accepted by the mothers. This also stems from the
dominant motherhood ideology, where mothers are seen as the primary carers
knowing the best for their child. Thus, they have the right to control the
childminder, although they choose to hire these high-qualified childminder through
77
professional ways of employee selections. They demand a professional
childminder, however they continue to exercise control over her.
As an example of the direct control over the childminder, one other interviewee also
mentions about her own mother staying at the house to be with the childminder, at
least in the first months. Having had the grandmother to look after her first daughter
until the baby was one year old, Aylin, later hired a live-in childminder from
Moldova. She said grandmother had been controlling the childminder in the first
months, when they trusted her they did not feel the need for the monitoring of the
grandmother.
In addition to the control through direct monitoring, there is also a control over the
works to be conducted by the childminder. Like Aslı, who is giving the childminder
written rules that should be applied while looking after the child, Zerrin told that
she formed a notebook, where the childminder could write when she fed the baby,
what she gave to him. When milk? When pudding?
Controlling is also the control of the childminder’s time. Ayça criticised some of
the childminders objecting to wash the clothes of the other family members and
cook meals for the others. “Why cannot she cook for us? She has the time when the
child is small, for instance when he is sleeping. When he grew up, I started to hire
someone else for the cleaning. Now, our childminder makes the cleaning when he is
at school, she also has the time for herself,” says Ayça to define the period when
her son is at school as the time left for the childminder. However, she demands her
to do the cleaning in her free time.
Zerrin said she had a live-in helper, who does all housework, as her children are
both going to school. She said another woman had been coming before her children
started to go to school.
She does the housework according to my directions. I do not let her to do
something on her own. I do the shopping. I organise what and how she will
cook, what will be washed. She is also doing the cleaning because girls are at
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school. She only sends them to school and take from school in the evenings.
(Zerrin)
In addition to this control over the housework in the house, Zerrin tries to control
her time. “I told her to go to sports centre near the house by organising her work,
she may go sometimes. This means, people can organise anything if they want.
When I decided not to take any other woman for cleaning, she got a bit angry, she
said she could not do all the work alone. However, as she can find some time to go
to sports centre…”
In addition to above mentioned types of direct control, mothers also execute an
indirect control over the childminder. The indirect controlling can be defined as the
demands from the childminder and the characteristics targeted to be found in the
childminder. Aslı summarizes her own approach as “she should maintain my own
approach regarding the child.” Rothman (1989:98) mentions about the expert
knowledge being given to the mothers and quotes a mother’s words “apparently,
making sure that she (the childminder) is doing the things in your way.” It is
important because children should grow up in accordance with the class habitus of
their families, not the childminders’. Thus, mother has the role to train the
childminder about the relation she will form with the child.
The point mentioned by the women hiring foreign childminders (for instance from
Moldova) was that these women were missing their children left in their
motherlands. Ayse told about their first childminder, who was from Moldova. She
said the only disadvantage for those women was that she missed her own children.
Çigdem had also experienced same kind of problem with the childminder from
Turkmenistan. “She had told me that she would stay for one year, however she left
earlier. She had a one-year old child, she missed him so much. I could not keep her,
while she was missing her child. Actually, I had told her at first. I asked her
whether she could stay for one year while a small child of her was in her country.
She had told that she would. However, she did not.” This is the point where it is
remembered that the childminder is also a mother at the same time. However, there
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is a great difference between the experiences of the professional mothers and the
childminders. Professional mothers may mention about the mothering of the
childminder as a disadvantage for themselves. As they miss their own children, they
cannot provide the form of the relationship with the child that their employers
demanded. By stating that they can understand the feelings of the childminder as a
mother, these women also define the mothering as an intense mothering, which
requires the existence of the mother with her own child. However, intensive
mothering ideology is an ideology targeting all classes differently. The
childminders in this case have to leave their own children back and go to other
countries to gain money in order to meet their children’s needs. The ‘good
mothering’ for childminders is not the same with the one for professional women.
The other problem mentioned for these women is their language problem. As they
do not speak Turkish well and children are mostly in relation with these women;
mothers do not want their children to learn dog Turkish. Ayse, who does not speak
Turkish fluently, as she was born and grew up in France, did not want any other one
speaking a defected language like herself as a childminder, as she wanted her son to
learn speaking well. Özge also mentioned this language problem as a criteria she
paid attention while choosing the childminder. Bourdieu mentions about the
signifiers helping us to ‘place’ people in the social world. Bourdieu (1984:6) argues
“taste classifies, it classifies the classifier. Social subjects classified by their
classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make.” Professional
women distinguish themselves with the language they use. Thus, they demand their
children use the same language classifying them from the lower classes.
Childminder should use language as they use with the child in order the child to
learn the distinguishing characteristic of his or her own class.
Childminder watching television or speaking on the phone long are also mentioned
by some of these women. Çigdem said she had put passwords to the TV channels,
“because, although I tell them not to watch, they are watching,” she said. Vincent
and Ball (2006:121) also find out that TV is a common reason for rejecting a
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childminder as an option for care. They analyse this difference through
distinguishing ‘taste’ of the classes. Choosing to watch TV or the programmes
watched are the distinguishing attribute among the professional women and the
childminder. Majority of the professional women stated that they did not want their
children to watch TV and thus, they distinguish themselves from the childminder
through TV-watching. This is where the class difference comes to scene and where
the professional women try to control the environment their children to grow up.
They demand their children to have the distinguishing characteristics of their own
classes, thus they try to control the childminder to act ‘in their way’.
Thus, the control over the childminder has a professional character as it positions
the professional women as an employer executing this control and also it has a class
character as the professional women does not have the shared dispositions with the
childminder and try to reproduce her own class habitus through controlling the
childminder. The reason behind strangers provoke an anxiety is not simply because
someone else is looking after children as Hertz and Ferguson mention. “But,
childcare substitutes call into question women’s unique maternal contribution to
family life even when women have made the conscious choice to pursue careers,
particularly for the white middle class. … Couples want their young children
surrounded by adults who know them and are like themselves” (Hertz and Ferguson,
1995: 264-265). The emphasis on ‘like themselves’ is what called as class habitus.
Professional women demand their children to grow up within their own class
habitus, however as it is the set of practices where these class position shows itself,
childminders, who are from a lower class, cannot totally undertake this maternal
role, which includes the reproduction of class.
5.1.3. Active Mothering
The important characteristic of these women are their active motherhood practices
despite the childminder hired. They do have great demands from childminders as
the latter will spend the greatest time with the children, however they undertake the
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primary role at any time they have the chance. The stress for a ‘high-quality time’ is
their motive while spending time with the children as they do not have the
opportunity to be with their children for longer hours. Snyder (2007:320) mentions
that as the parents’ demand to meet both work and home responsibilities, while still
attending the needs of the children, they start to define the time spend with the
children as a ‘quality time’ and try to form it according to the needs of the children.
The important point that Snyder also reaches is that mothers are more responsible
for quality time in day-to-day parenting. In need of feeling that they have been
executing their mothering role perfectly, professional women place great emphasis
on continuing to be active in the child caring practices.
Özge stressed ‘quality time’ as having efficient time for child rather than having
long time.
nci, who did not want to hire a live-in childminder first told the reason
behind this as spending more time with the child. However, she then decided to
have a live-in one. “There is a difference. I continue to have time with my child.
However, I actually spend a higher-quality time. I had been exhausted before.”
While complaining about Turkish childminders not cooking, Çigdem said “I am
looking after my son by myself at nights, I feed him, I wash him. Childminder has
nothing to do, when I come home. They do not have to get up at nights, they need
to sleep in order to have the energy to look after him as they are alone with Alp the
whole day. … I also look after him in the weekends. The responsibility of the home
is not a huge work.”
Aylin complained about the childminder taking the whole responsibility. “I had
been washing them, then she started to do it, she took over all the responsibility.”
They do not want the childminder to be like a second mother for their children.
They want to feel that they are the first contact person for their own children.
Expressing her opinion of Turkish live-in childminders, Begüm said; “It is hard to
find a Turkish live-in childminder. We paid double the price to Turkish one. One
year later, she demanded fifty pct increase in her wage. They do this. They think
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both the child and the mother got used to them, it is like taking all the profit they
can. I did not want to accept her bluff, frankly. They say, it is not good for the child
to be with the same childminder for long years and accept her as the second
mother.” Although she is not so much happy with the childminder, Ayça says that
she continues to work with that one as her son liked her and as she did not face with
any problem in the relation of the childminder with the child. She told about the
relation between her son with the childminder a bit jealously like “He cries when
she is going home, he does not even cry when I am going work.” Aslı says the
childminder should not make her daughter dependent on herself. She also says that
if the child could not be together with the mother, s/he has to go to school. It is hard
to trust in somebody. Ayse also distinguishes the mothers from childminders like:
“Children are happier with their mothers even though they spend more time with
the childminders and have good relations with them.”
Çigdem said it was easy for her to understand that her son was not happy with that
childminder, because she is the one who can form the closest relation with her child
and she wants to stress this point in order not to loose the feeling of her own
motherhood.
By distinguishing themselves from the childminder, these women construct their
motherhood as the primary and the special one. Although they spend less time with
their children because of their works, they try to organise their time with the
children in order to construct and/or not loose the ‘special bond’ between the
mother and the child. Their motherhood continues to be an important identity in
their definition of themselves. They want to feel that they are mothers, thus they
value the time spent with the children. Rothman (1989:97) stresses an important
point in this respect. The tasks performed by the ones hired are the traditional tasks
of mothering, which are feeding, tending, caring, and the other psychological and
physical tasks involved in the care of children. “When performed by mothers, we
call this mothering. When performed by fathers, we have sometimes called it
fathering, sometimes parenting, sometimes helping the mother. When performed by
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the hired hands, we called it unskilled.” Thus, there occurs a contradictory case in
the exercise of the mothering tasks.
Vincent and Martin (2006:82) argue motherhood is not seen as intellectually
demanding. As motherhood is traditionally expressed in physical and emotional
terms, it is undervalued than the more abstract intellectual challenge of professional
paid employment. However it is hard to tell that these professional mothers
undervalue their motherhood identity. They define and exercise mothering as a
professional one, as it is seen in their way of choosing childminders; they give great
importance to the time spent with the children; they control the childminders’ time
with the children. Thus, their motherhood becomes an intellectually demanding one
and it is different from the ‘routine’ tasks of child caring performed by the
childminder. Rothman mentions about the recent mother manuals. Whereas the old
manuals tell the ways to execute good mothering for the children, the new ones give
clues on how to find, use, train, supervise, relate to, (not) compete with, the
children’s caregivers (Rothman, 1989:97). Their intensive mothering starts to
include the organisation of the relation with the childminder like they even feel the
necessity to organise the relation with the father.
5.2. Relations with the Father
As it is stated before, the fundamental contribution of feminists to the area of
mothering is defining it as a socially constructed fact. Fathering like mothering is
also a social construction. As Doherty et al. (1998:278) state, sociological and
historical analyses, which make it clear that fathering is a social construction, also
define fathering in relation to mothering, mothers’ expectations and social
expectations about childrearing in the society. Thus, fathering cannot be analysed
just through the relation between the father and child, but from a wider perspective.
Although fathering has started to be analysed generally with the increase in the
labour force participation of women, which necessitates the rearrangement of child
caring practices between the parents; such an analyses may be misleading in
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showing the historical variations of the fathering practices. As Coltrane (2004:227)
stresses the importance of historicity of fathering, he mentions about the family
structure in 17th and 18th centuries in Europe, where both fathers and mothers took
responsibility for child care and training. With the rise of industrialisation, and
resulting distinction between public and private spheres, the definition of fathering
and mothering started to change in relation to their primary tasks of incomesupporter
and carer respectively. However, 20th century brought about a redefinition
of fathering, which is highly affected from the increase in the number of
women starting to work outside the family.
This change in the fathering experiences of men are rather named as “modern
fathering” (Coltrane, 2004) or “responsible fathering” (Doherty et al., 1998) in
order to stress their departure from the traditional role of fathers within the
household as the sole breadwinner. I believe that explaining fathering experiences
of the men through the discourse of women have some drawbacks as it remains
deficient without listening to the fathers themselves. What will be done in this part
is something different than stressing the experiences of these so-called “new
fathers”. It is argued in here that, mothering as a social construct is also affected
from the relations between the father and the mother. Women construct their
motherhood identity also through the relations with their husbands. Thus, here the
aim is to analyze mothering through fathering and thus the above mentioned
researches about the fathers generally in dual-income households will be referred
within this context.
Professional women, who are focused within the extent of this study, are generally
sensitive about the participation of the father in the child caring activities. A small
percentage of them state that they are the sole care takers. The ones stating that they
undertake the primary responsibility emphasize the support they are used to receive
from their partners. Based on the statement of these women, it may be argued that
the partners may be considered as playing a more active role in child caring
practices. However, the important point is to what extent they have been active in
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fathering and what the mother’s role in directing their practices is. Cowdery and
Martin (2005:337) divide the couples into three main categories based on how
gender is used to organise their relationship. Postgender couples consciously move
beyond gender as a mechanism to organise their relationships. Gender legacy
couples do not refer to gender as the basis for their division of labour, however
operate with hidden gender-based power relations. Lastly, traditional couples
consciously advocate and maintain a gendered division of labour. According to this
categorisation, women interviewed for this study and their husbands may be named
as gender legacy couples, because they maintain gendered division of labour
especially in their child caring practices although fathers’ participation rate is
higher than the traditional couples.
Mothering is constructed as one of the fundamental characteristic of women and it
is used to be seen as deriving from the natural bond between the mother and the
child. As Gatrell (2005:179) states “there is no doubt that motherhood is far more
central to most women’s sense of identity than fatherhood to most men’s.” Phoenix
and Woollett (1991:4) define the situation like “being a parent is a less allembracing
definition of a man than a woman.” The interviewees accepting their
primary role in the caring of their children stress on the difference between mothers
and fathers in order to legitimate this way of action. It is even apparent in the
language of some women, as they use the pronoun “I” while telling about the
relations with the child or the decision taken about the child. Some of them consider
this attitude normal and thinks that this is deriving from motherhood instinct. These
women generally stated that their children had a closer relationship with themselves
compared with the father. Zerrin argued that the reason behind was the difference
between motherhood and fatherhood.
There is a huge difference between the approaches of the mother and the father
in certain situations. Motherhood is instinctive and comes from birth for the
women. However fatherhood is a profession learned later. There is a huge
difference between the feelings of the mother and the father. Mothers are much
more emotional, whereas fathers are much more rational. Thus, they form very
different relationship with the children. Or I believe in this. My girls’ relation
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with their father is not bad, however it is generally told that daughters form a
closer relation with the father, this is not the case in our family. (Zerrin)
Ayse also argued that motherhood was a natural phenomenon. Women knows how
they should behave when they have child, it is related with the hormones she
believes. Aylin stated that her daughters preferred mother in the activities to be
done together. She seemed aware of the fact that children preferred her because she
had been dealing with the children more since their birth. She noted her husband
was also close to the children and wanted to do something with them. “Anyhow,
they are close to the mother, intrinsically,” added she. Although she noted that her
husband cared after children, she said he stepped in at any point she needed help.
She believes mothers have the mission to lead the decisions related with the
children. Çigdem has also the primary responsibility in the caring of their son. She
said the father had been more closely involved with the caring practice, when the
child was a baby. However, it decreased as the child got older. It suited his book,
she said. Atkinson (1987:146) stresses this difference between the mothers and
fathers like while mothers are more likely to provide physical care of children,
especially the younger ones; fathers are more likely to play with the children.
Younger children have more physical need that should be met. The direct
dependence of the baby to the mother like in the case of breast feeding may support
the mothers’ role to become a primary one. Although the other needs of the children
do not have to be necessarily met by the mother, mothers generally continue to
meet all of the children’s needs.
On the other hand, majority of the interviewees need to push their husband to do
something with the child. This is the general tendency among the professional
women interviewed. Borrowing the term from Badinter, Marikova (2008:139)
mentions about forced parenting, where father performs the most essential tasks of
a caregiver. Although the fathering of these women’s parents seem to be ‘forced’,
where the mother plays the role of forcing agent, in the case of professional women
it is not like forcing the partner in order to share the responsibility of caring. These
women generally pay great attention to the relation of the child with the father.
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They do not want the children to contact only with themselves. Özge told the
weekend activities of their son was under the responsibility of his father, she
fostered it like this. As the child generally spent time with the mother in the
weekdays, she thought as the child should spend time with the father at the
weekends. Begüm tells she has been pushing her husband to spend sometime with
the child as well.
I had read it somewhere, children may feel uncomfortable when they are with
the father, as all their needs are met by the mother. Thus, I want them to go out
together when Alp is hungry. When they are both at home, I give my husband
the food and want him to feed Alp. Not only playing, I push11 him to do
something else. I tell them to go to park when I am at home. I may also go with
them, I want to be with them. However, I do not go. I make a sacrifice for them
to spend time together. (Begüm)
Here, the interesting point in here is that she does not demand help from her
husband for herself. It is important as this has not been done for the equal
distribution of tasks in the household. It is important for the child to have a close
relationship with the father and mothers demand this from their husbands for the
sake of their children. In her research with the full-time carer fathers, Marikova
tries to find out whether this case of caring fathers leads to gender equality between
the women and men. However, in this case, it is not even coming closer to a
gender-equal stand. Although they do not define themselves just as mothers, rather
as professional women, managers, and employers or with the other roles they take
in the society, they maintain this professional managing role in their mothering
practices, which is supported by the dominant motherhood ideology.

nci, another interviewee, stated that she fostered her husband to take their son to
bed. She tried to explain this by men’s problem with touching. She said it was not
like the mother, of course. The optimum point attempted to be reached is not a
mother-like attitude but they try to improve the relationship between the child and
the father. Ayça stated she felt sorry as she had not let her husband to take
11 It is stated as ‘push’ by Begüm herself. As the statements of the women are translated by myself, I
feel the need to mention this detail as the word is chosen by the interviewee and as it is preferred to
be stated in English.
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responsibility of the child when he was young. “I did not let him do anything. I did
everything, or my mother. My husband played with him. He did not pay attention to
care. And I did not force him. Thus, I carried the burden of all responsibilities.”
Derya also said that she fostered her husband to spend time with their daughter at
the weekends. She said she made plans for them to spend some time together.
However, she achieved it just for five or six times. “I believe it will be good for
them to do something together. If both father and mother feel the same
responsibility, children will approach same to both of them. However, men
generally efface themselves. They think that children are brought up by mothers.
They say they may look after when children grow up” told she. What mentioned by
Derya as the reason behind the difference of mother-child and father-child
relationship is stated by Marikova (2008:146) with the following words: “When the
father cares for the child, a change occurs in the relationship between the father and
the child. The man is able to form a closer relationship with the child and vice
versa.”
On the other hand, some women do insist on telling that their husbands are as
responsible as themselves in the caring of the child. A study conducted through the
discourses of the participants should not question their sincerity, but it may also be
understood more easily while listening to the interviews once again that they
themselves mention the secondary role of the father at one point. Özge, mentioning
about the active involvement of her husband in child caring, expressed that her son
had a closer relation with herself, however she felt sad about that her son had stated
once that he loved his father more when asked. “I am bringing him up, I am caring
for him, he sees me more, however he can answer like this” said Özge. Berrin is the
one, who seems to have the most equal relationship with her husband in the caring
of their child. She believes both mothers and fathers have changed. This is a closer
example to the case of postgender couples. Being present at birth creates the bond
between the father and the baby, Berrin thinks. When he first sees the baby at the
baby room, it becomes harder for him to feel that connection.
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Fathers are more involved in caring now. As mothers start to work. You see
everything in ultrasonography each month. Before, fathers did not feel the need
to go to doctor with their wives. Both mothers and father changed I think. Not
only seeing the baby; he also wants to get informed. They also have a
perfectionist approach about everything. Fathers do not consider it only a matter
of having heirs to keep family name; child is a ‘project’ also for them. (Berrin)
As Berrin believes there is no difference between mother and father in the carrying
of child, she thinks the relations of the child with both parents are the same. She
told about the other friends of them, who share the time to spend with the child. If
one has the responsibility in the weekdays, the other spends time with the child at
the weekends, or they may share the nights among each other. Although she might
really be a good example to this sharing practice, Berrin mentioned about the meal
list she had prepared for his husband for a day he spent with their child. Like in this
case, the mother tries to know fundamental needs of the child and direct the way of
caring the child. Begüm said while she was responsible from what the child eats, his
husband was responsible from the teaching table manners. This was also an
interesting point mentioned. All these may be considered as the increasing concern
of fathers on children. As they do not pay attention to the fundamental needs of
them, they may be more active in undertaking the educational role, which is more
prestigious than caring activities. In traditional families, man, the role of whom is
defined with the outside of the household, is seen more capable of the rules and
procedures of the outside world; where woman, who spends more time in the
household, continues to be ignorant about the practices in the society. However, in
the group of families analysed for this study, which do not continue this traditional
role patterns, may continue to reproduce this role of men in small practices within
the household, particularly in child caring practices. This way of understanding may
also be apparent in the discourses of Berrin and Özge, when they talked about their
husbands are interested in the choice of toys, in order to find the best one for the
intellectual development of the child. In the interviews with the women having
children at the school age, it is also observed that fathers are very active in school
choice. Derya and Özge told their husbands were closely interested in the school
choice. They seemed as they have been paying greater attention to this subject. The
fields, where men can show their intelligence and capabilities are these educational
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fields and thus they are closely involved with the decisions regarding these areas.
However, “fathers, in particular the middle class ones, were better at public
prominence than private home-based support with school work, and hardly any of
them got involved physical rather than mental labour, ironing school blouses or
preparing packaged launched” (Reay, 2005:106).
Difference of responsibilities undertaken by fathers and mothers is clearly seen in
the example of Ayse. They moved from France to Turkey when their son was born
as she was appointed to Turkish office of the company she has been working. Her
husband did not use to work when they first moved and she told she was so happy
first as her husband would look after the child and she would not have to find any
other woman for it. “Of course, it didn’t work. It didn’t last even for two weeks.
Olivie had not been with the child before. While we had been both working, I was
caring after him. Olivie was only playing with him. However, caring after children
is not only playing with them.” (Ayse). The role of fathers generally stays at the
level of playing with children and sometimes going out for a walk. Aylin stated this
clearly; “The fields of the mother are wider, the fathers’ are smaller. He shows them
around, he plays with them. However, a mother should think about any detail. What
did they eat today, whether they eat the same meal twice, etc. All these are known
by the mother; even childminders know them better than the father.” The
responsibility of caring children was transferred to another woman as a helper for
the mother. Çigdem mentioned a dispute with her husband, which they could not
solve; “He used to get up when Alp was crying while he was a baby. Then he
started not to get up. He asks what the child minder is for. When I demand help
from him at nights, he gets angry and wants me to call the childminder. We haven’t
reached an agreement at this point.” Fatos said the time her husband spend with the
children had to increase when they had the second child. It becomes like a necessity
with the birth of second child.
As mothers continue to be the primary carers, they also feel themselves more
responsible for the needs of children and pay greater attention to their caring
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activities compared with their activities they used to do for themselves. Aylin told
she wanted to do something for herself, however she also wanted to be at home
with children when she went out. Mothers have always experienced this dilemma,
where fathers do not feel it, she argued. Aylin tried to spare sometime to herself
once in weekday nights. Çigdem also mentioned that they spent time with her
husband when Alp was sleeping. When he was awake, she did not want to go
anywhere else by leaving him.
If I want to meet my friends at the weekend, I go with Alp. I do not leave him to
his father. We organise these meetings when my husband has some work to do.
When he has a plan, I meet with my friends by taking Alp with me. I may spend
sometime for myself maybe when he grows up. (Çigdem)
Begüm told she had guilty conscience before when she did something for herself.
However, she said she started to regard herself as a working mother, wife, sister,
friend in addition to being a mother. She said her priority has not changed and she
was a mother first, however she has been trying not to neglect anything in her life.
Aslı also told that she started to allocate sometime for herself after their daughter
was one year old. She believes the time of this arrangement changes from mother to
mother.
Most of the women do not clearly mention traditional understanding of discipline,
which had been generally the role of father in the household. Atkinson (1987:148)
finds out in her research conducted among middle and upper-middle class parents
that discipline and financial support are ranked highest for both actual and preferred
behaviours of fathers. However, mothers and fathers generally tend not to mention
about the requirement of discipline while raising children. Only Zerrin stated that
she did not take any decision without asking to her husband. As the children are
very close to mother, father should play the role of authority, she believes. Thus her
husband has the last word. This authority may be felt by the children and they
should learn that they can obtain permission from their fathers. She defined this as
their method, which may also be considered as a way planned and determined
consciously for their way of child rearing. In addition, this authority demand from
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the father may also be read from the discourse of some women as in the case of
Zerrin. When she wants to mention her husband as the father of their children, she
uses the expression like “our father”. From my point of view, this statement reflects
that the authority of the father, which is also accepted by the mother herself. Where
“father” is by itself an expression used for the man holding the authority, “our
father” shows that the women internalises this authority preferred to be shown
against children.
It should not be forgotten that all of the above mentioned relations among the father
and children are the statements of the mothers. However, their statements are more
important within the extent of this study in order to observe the impact of father’s
role in the construction of the motherhood identities. As a study on mothering of
professional women, rather than parenting practices; here the importance of
mothers’ relation with their partners are told with regard to its effect on their
motherhood identity. Firstly, we should note that the partners of the interviewed
professional women are more active in child caring compared with the past.
However, the areas they are active are still more limited than the areas of the
mothers. The primary tasks of child caring are still fulfilled by the mothers
themselves. The most important point that is observed in their partners’ inclusion is
that women undertake the organising role in the relationship between the father and
the child, as well as in the case of childminders. They organise fathers’ time spent
with the children. However, here the aim is not this is not reaching a more equal
division of labour in child caring tasks. They do not demand the father to be more
involved in child caring in order not to take over the whole responsibility. They
rather undertake the role of the reproducing the middle class ideal family, where
family members are bonded with each other. In this ideal type, the child should
have a close relation both with the father and the mother. Thus, this necessity of
forming such closeness is met by mother’s efforts, by encouraging the father to
spend time with the children and even organising the time and activities. They do
not feel the “sense of loss” when they take steps to establish greater equality of
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parenting as Gatrell states (2005: 179). Because, steps taken do not establish a
greater equality of parenting. They continue to be the “parent of first contact.”
To sum up, the relations formed between the professional women and the
childminders and also the fathers are important in order to understand the mothering
experiences of the professional women and their construction of motherhood
identity. Their relations with the childminder and their husbands are the relations,
where both the professional understanding and class character of mothering can be
observed. Professional women form an employer-employee relationship with the
childminder, even with the live-in ones. They demand them to have some sort of
profession in childminding, which can be understood from the characteristics
demanded from the childminder. However this professionalism in childcaring does
not empower the childminders in the same way with the professionalisation of the
mothers as the latter continue to execute a power over the former. Besides, although
professional women seem to use the advantages of their economic capital in order
to substitute ‘their’ household tasks, they continue to experience the double burden
of both being professional and being mothers. Even the controlling and organising
tasks of the childcaring activities changing from finding the childminder to organise
the relations with her cannot be undervalued. They also try to execute their
mothering role at any time when they do not work. They are affected by the
dominant motherhood ideology defining them as the primary care-givers. They
continue to be the primary responsible one from the child. Just like organising the
relations between the childminder and the children and they are also the ones
pushing fathers to be more active in childcaring work. Yet, fathers are undertaking
the caring role ‘to a certain extent’.
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CHAPTER 6
CHILD REARING AND SOCIALISATION
There is a developing body of studies on the new styles of child-caring activities.
Trying to understand the childcare practices within a broader perspective, as being
affected from neoliberal discourse; Beck-Gernsheim makes an analysis of modern
parenthood. To her, individualisation drive of the modernity forms a life that has to
be lived as a planning project (Beck-Gernsheim, 2002:43). Even the time and place
to become parents is a part of a planned life. This planned characteristic of the lives
of the parents reflect directly to the child-rearing practices of them. Beck-
Gernsheim (2002:88) states that discovery of childhood and a new era in
parenthood start with the transition to modern society. “Parents were decided to
contribute to the healthy development of their children through proper care and
education. Besides, the Enlightenment principle giving excessive importance upon
the education, gives duties requiring more work from parents.”
However, these practices are generally thought to be shown as the individual
characteristic of people. As Beck-Gernsheim states, this planning mentality
characteristic cannot be considered as an individual mania, it is rather part of a
global project of modernity. She calls it as the ‘new plasticity of life’ with its
associated opportunities, checks and pressures. Parenthood together with a plenty of
other spheres face with new demands. “The present is more and more forced into
the future (Beck-Gernsehim, 2002:63). This future orientedness is about rearing a
child, who will be competitive in the capitalist world. As Kagıtçıbası (1996:35)
states “socialisation is for competence.” She believes childrearing is goal-oriented
although the goal may not be consciously formulated. Becoming the competent
member of the society is the long-range goal of socialization.
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Having such an understanding, “the child in the middle class and associate levels
grows up in an environment which is finely and extensively controlled; the space,
time and the social relationships are explicitly regulated within and outside the
family group” (Bernstein, 1971:29). This control on the children is the result of the
planning considering their future life. Such a control forms a physiological situation
which both affects the parents and the children at the same time. It is called as
“parenting-mania” by Beck and Beck-Gernsheim. Vincent and Ball (2006:134)
quoted from Beck and Beck-Gernsheim and defined the profile of group catching
‘parenting mania’ as: “highly susceptible are middle class women, who are welleducated
city dwellers, expecting their first child at a fairly advanced age.”
Although the term is formed as ‘parenting’ mania, the target group consists not of
the fathers but of the mothers, who are primarily the members of the family
responsible from parenting. The women defined by Beck and Beck-Gernsheim are
compatible with the professional women interviewed for this study. However, the
deficiency of the term ‘parenting-mania” is its class and gender blindness. This is
common among many studies analysing changing childcaring practices of generally
the middle class families. However as Reay (2006:106) rightly directs attention to
the fact that says that we have a discourse of parenting in which gendered,
racialized and classed notions of parent are not acknowledged, rendering
inequalities existing between parents invisible. It should be remembered that
“intense daily work with children is very much the province of the mother.”
The gendered character of parental involvement in childcaring, or what is used to be
called as fathering and mothering was examined in the previous chapter. As Caputo
(2007:174) argues for the situation in Canada, “despite evidence of fathers’ roles
having undergone positive changes in Canada over the past decade with regard to
child-rearing and other family responsibilities, mothers continue to have primary
responsibility for caring for children.” Thus, it is primarily the mothering activities,
which adapts itself to these changes in child caring work.
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The second point paid attention by Reay as it was mentioned, but not all the
scholars, is the class character of this mothering (or parenting in general)
activities. It cannot be considered as a universal pattern targeting all mothers.
Professional women’s experiences of mothering are directly affected from the
changes in child rearing practices. Decisions about education and socialisation of
children are primarily taken by families. Following Glucksman and Ungerson,
Reay (2006) argues in her article of Doing the dirty work of social class?
Mothers’ work in support of their children’s schooling that; a major achievement
of feminist search has been the broadening of the concept of work to include “the
invisible labour” of the home and neighbourhood. However she believes that
educative work is the still relatively neglected aspect of domestic labour.
Educative work of mothers starts at the very early ages of the children.
What I will try to do in this chapter is how education and socialisation of children,
which should be considered among the primary tasks of mothering, is executed by
these professional women. The class character of these decisions will be stressed.
As Reay (2006:110) argues “Parental involvement is gendered: it is also
powerfully classed.” Besides, as Vincent and Ball (2006:63) support in their
research, childcare choices made by middle class families both generate and
maintain class divisions and work to reproduce differential educational
opportunities. Thus, the educational activities of these professional women have a
crucial role in reproduction of the educational inequalities in the society. Besides,
mothers’ role in transmission of cultural capital will also be stressed. According
to Crompton (2006:165), family remains as one of the major transmission agent
of class reproduction and therefore persisting inequality; despite all the disputes
on the class itself. And also Bourdieu (as cited in Vincent & Ball, 2006:159)
argues family’s transmission of cultural capital is “the best hidden and socially
most determinant educational investment.”
I will examine the mothers’ role in the pre-school education of their children,
including their choice of kindergarten, play groups, extra-curricular activities and
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even the choice of living place, which is thought as playing an important role for
the socialisation of children. All these will be analysed by paying attention to the
role of professional mothers in the reproduction of their class positions.
6.1. Living Area
Genis (2007:775) in her research on the gated communities in
stanbul states that
there is a dramatic transformation in both the housing market and residential
landscape of
stanbul since late 1980s. “While there is a diversification of housing
options for the upper and middle-income groups on one hand, a process of
decentralisation has been initiated, not by the immigrants / urban poor and the
practice of squatting, but by a coalition of the middle and upper classes, state actors
and major developers, on the other hand.” These places become the places where
middle and upper classes live far away from the chaotic environment of the city
life. Perouse and Danıs (2005:119) argue that although the crime rate is not as high
as the other cities in
stanbul, insecurity of the city life is generally stated by the
companies marketing these building complexes. This stress on the insecurity of the
city life and the security of these building complexes drive especially the middle
and upper class families with children to prefer to live in these places. Genis
(2007:790) finds out that most of the families living in the building complex she
had conducted her research think that the children should be sheltered from the
inconveniences of the city life.
In addition to the security concern, these new building complexes away from the
city centre are the places through which the inhabitants create distinction.
Wealthier people try to distinguish their living areas and set a border with the
rest of the society as a symbol of privilege and exclusiveness through their
relation with the space in general and houses in particular. As this exclusion can
be through cultural and social symbols (Bourdieu, 1984), it can also be through
these housing complexes in a more concrete and physical way (Perause and
Danıs, 2005:104).
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Professional women, who are able financially to meet the cost of these living areas,
prefer to live in there; at least the ones I interviewed. Despite one living in an
apartment but in Atasehir, which is a place that can be considered as out-city and
where housing complexes take place, all others live in building complexes, which
generally have securities and social activities, sports clubs and swimming pools in.
Öncü points out the clean social environment, which is the symbol of middle class
identity and status of middle and upper classes of Istanbul. New building complex
designs present these new life styles, which combines the beauties of country life
and recent facilities of urban life (As quoted in Ayata, 2003:38). Thus, choice of
living places has an important implication for the class positioning of the people.
The importance of the choice of living places for this study on the mothering
experiences of professional women is the centrality of the children in their decisions
for choosing the places to live.
Except two living in housing complexes for a long time, all other women mentioned
that they moved in their new houses when they had children or were planning to
move in a new apartment soon. The first point stressed by them was the security of
these places. They demand their children to go out and play in outdoor places,
however it is not possible for them to play in the streets like they used to in their
own childhoods. Thus, these apartment buildings having securities at the door
provide them to feel safe for their children. Even one woman mentioned that they
had the opportunity to see where the child was through the cameras placed in
different places of the garden.
You can leave the child and go out in these housing complexes. I feel myself
safe. (Aylin)
We moved in our new apartment for Defne. Here is a bit more secure than the
previous place. However, I do not want Defne to go out alone for playing. There
is not any security at the gate. They are planning to put one, and then I may let
her to play in the garden. (Derya)
I did not grow up within such constraints. The streets were always more
entertaining. However we have to live in such housing complexes from now on.
(
nci)
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I have been living in a housing complex since I have moved to
stanbul. It has
many advantages for the child, it is very important. (Didem)
These professional women give great importance to the security problem for their
children. To discuss whether security is really a threat or not may exceed the limits
of this study. However as stated above it is widely used as a marketing strategy by
these housing complexes despite the low crime rates in
stanbul. Mothers, who are
the primarily responsible parents of the child-related decisions, give great
importance to this subject. They cannot be with their children all the time as they all
have a huge work load. Thus, creating a secure environment for the child becomes
one of the concerns that should be paid attention by the professional women.
Secondly, the social activities taking place in these complexes are considered as an
advantage for the children to be socialized. The interesting point in here is these
opportunities were stated not to be beneficial for their own, but for the children.
Genis (2007:787) finds out in her research that availability of the facilities for the
children is paid attention by the families. “The significance of attaining the ability
to practice these sports at an early stage for the children’s personality and career is
generally emphasized.”
We will move into our new house this summer. It is related with my fear of
earthquake. Besides, it is for Kaan. I want him to ride bike and play
comfortably. It should be more secure for him. It is not safe in
stanbul, we will
move in Maltepe. Social activities, tennis courts etc. are important. But not for
us, they are important for Kaan. I would continue to live in this house if we had
not have Kaan. I might not think about earthquake. Or security would not be an
important concern. (Begüm)
“We moved in here as we were very much concerned with the children. While
choosing the place, we paid attention to the social activities. We demanded a
park and a swimming pool. We wanted it to have a security for children to play
in the garden. (Fatos)
Ayata (2003:52), in his research about the building complexes in Ankara and the
new middle class life styles in these places, draws attention to the excessive care on
and sensitivity about children, while he is mentioning about the most conspicuous
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characteristics of family life in the cities. As he also mentions with the increase in
the purchasing power, children have their own rooms and own wardrobes, dressing
tables, radios, televisions and audio systems in the rooms. These own rooms of the
children were not even considered as an extra opportunity for their children by the
women I talked with. This is like a must in their houses to have a separate room for
the children. Aslı stated they even changed the furnishing of the whole house for
their young girl in order to provide her the best place to play. The room is generally
mentioned related to the individuality of the children by stressing the child sleeping
on his or her own as of small ages. They seem to have an important concern about
this detachment from parent’s room. Except the first months, when children are
mostly dependent on the breast feeding, they are encouraged to sleep on their own.
The ones mentioning this point especially drew attention to the fact that they did not
face with any problem with the children when they were put in their own beds.
Individuality, which is given importance by these professional women, operates
through certain borders. While they were supporting their children to be on their
own, they are controlling the environment they are living in and also their education
trajectories intensively.
6.2. Education within the household
Controlling the external environment depending on the needs of their children,
professional women gave great importance to the education and socialisation of
their children. And education starts even within the household in their early ages.
As it was mentioned above, professional women give great importance to the
professionalisation of the childminders on child caring and demand higher
qualifications as they child grow older. However, they continue to play the primary
role in the educational and socialisation activities of their children, both within and
outside the household.
According to Bernstein (1971:25), the child in the middle class and associate levels
is socialized within a formally articulated structure. Parents take decisions about
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their children in a planned manner to reach certain ends. “Consequently, the child
grows up in an ordered, rational structure in which his total experience is organised
from an early age” (Bernstein, 1971:25). This is the fact observed in the case of
professional women’s mothering experiences. The important difference of the
finding of this study from the argument of Bernstein is; this organisation has been
conducted primarily by the mothers, not parents. Although fathers are more
involved in the decisions about school choice, they are not involved in the childrelated
decisions within the household. They are not even interested in the choice of
kindergarten as much as the choice of primary school. The traditional division of
labour, where women are the responsible from the tasks within the household and
the men from the external world, seems to continue in child caring and rearing.
Women are the responsible ones from the child rearing starting within the
household in the early ages. Following Wacquant, Reay (2006:113) expresses that
the self production of class collectivities goes on in the home and is predominantly
the work of mothers. The work of social reproduction is located in the interlinking
of the domestic sphere with public institutions. Thus, as it was stated at the
beginning that not all but most of the studies on the childcaring activities and their
class character have the deficiency as they do not consider the fact as a gender
related issue. Their class-based analysis is crucial for this study and their genderblindness
is tried to be overcome within the extent of this study.
While analysing the construction of childhood, Kasturi states that metanarratives
constructed by corporations coerce parents into thinking that the ‘ideal’ or ‘normal’
childhood involves the continuous consumption of the corporate promoted products
and services. (as cited in Vincent and Martin, 2002:56) Mothers, as being actors and
target group of these metanarratives are forced to obey the rules of the market. Toys
market supplying great range of alternatives for children, targets the mothers to
make them consume different toys for different age groups and for differentiated
‘needs’ for the intellectual development of children. However, this consumption for
children differentiates among the mothers of different classes.
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Bourdieu (1984:223) argues that toy market should also be studied on the basis of
the analysis of the conditions in which toy purchases are made. Thus it can be
understood the meaning and function which the different classes consciously or
unconsciously confer on toys according to their own schemes of perception and
according to their educational strategies. Bourdieu states “the propensity to confer
an educational function on toys no doubt rises with the degree to which the
reproduction of social position depends exclusively on transmission of cultural
capital: i.e. with the weight of the cultural capital in the asset structure.”
Professional women, who are rich in cultural capital, give great emphasis on the toy
selection and their educative function. As Begüm states the toys industry has
developed excessively. There are very different toys for each age group, which are
marketed as contributing to the intellectual development of children. Mothers, who
are very curious about this industry, give great importance to the toys they choose
for their children. It is hard to tell that this is not directly related with their
economic capital. Begüm and Özge said they had as much toys as a toy store.
However, what Bourdieu state is important at this point in order to show the reason
behind telling about the following ‘choices’ of professional women for expressing
their class positioning.
If everything encourages a belief in the existence of a direct relationship
between income and consumption, this is because taste is almost always the
product of economic conditions identical to those in which it functions, so that
income tends to be credited with a causal efficacy which it in fact only exerts in
association with the habitus it has produced. The specific efficacy of the habitus
is clearly seen when the same income is associated with very different patterns
of consumption, which can only be understood by assuming that other selection
principles have intervened. (Bourdieu, 1984:377-378)
This is the reason behind their stress on not purchasing all kinds of toys. Özge said
she always preferred toys from which her son could learn something. Thus, the
weight of cultural capital starts to gain importance in their selection of toys for
children.
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Toy blocks are the primarily stressed toys preferred to be purchased by the mothers.
They are thought as developing the creativity of the children. They demand their
children to be creative. “We want a special child”, believes Beck-Gernsheim.
Although these demands are described as parental egoism or individual neuroses;
Beck-Gernsheim thinks this is the changing form of parenthood in modernity.
Modern parenthood has become ever more the object of private planning and
decision, public care and responsibility. Thus, parenthood, what used to be a natural
category, starts to be increasingly opened up to conscious intervention and this
leads to new life styles (Beck-Gernsheim, 2002:87).
This new life style of professionals is constructed on distinguishing themselves
from the others of the lower class, which has been generally defined through
‘traditional’ choices. The women, who have a daughter, especially stressed that they
did not want to buy barbie dolls for their children. However, their daughters wanted
and they had to purchase when their daughters insisted as ‘all girls have Barbie
dolls”. Aslı stated her daughter bought barbie magazines when they went out for
shopping. “However, she does not play with her barbie dolls. She likes to do
something with her crayons, like a bienal artist,” she said. The distinction from
what has been common and ordinary, position them at a higher level compared with
the ‘rest’.
Ayça stated that she has been following toy sector closely. “Toys are very important
for my son’s intellectual development. They are different toys for different age
groups. I pay attention to them. I always purchase toys for his mental
development.”
As it was mentioned above, professional women’s professional mothering firstly
requires obtaining detailed information and gaining expertise in child-related
subjects. Reading books on child caring is the most common source of information.
Besides, reading as an activity is stressed as a distinguishing activity. All
professional women mentioned about the books they preferred to purchase for their
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children. The stress on the own library of the children was very common. They
gave great importance on reading books for their children. What
nci told about this
subject was interesting in order to show the class habitus of these professional
women in which their children have been growing up. “There are many books in
our house. Maybe my son will not read until he is 10. However, I am sure that he
will read when he is 15. Because, he is growing up in such an environment.” Aylin
also stated “If parents read, children also read. If parents visit museums, go to
cinema or theatre, children are also with them. Children grow up in such a social
environment.” This ‘such an environment’ stress of these professional women is the
way defining their class habitus.
The effect of professionalisation as an ideology shows itself in these choice of toys
and books. They all have detailed information about which toys should be played in
which ages, which books should be read to children. Majority of them said they
used internet as a source of information about these subjects.
TV watching is the other common point mentioned by all women. They all said that
they did not want their children to watch TV. It was mentioned in the previous
chapter that as they do not want their children to watch TV, they also do not want
the childminder to watch TV near the children. While some of them putting strict
rules for not watching TV, some others told that they limited the time to watch TV.
Distinguishing ‘taste’ of the professional women is reproduced through the rules
put on the children.
All these activities and the ones to be stated in the following part related with their
formal education are conducted for the future success of the children. There are key
class differences among women in their conceptualisation of children’s happiness
as Reay finds out in her research. While all working class mothers talk frequently
about their child’s happiness in the present, apart from the ones whose children
have special educational needs, the middle class mothers were much more likely to
be considering the future happiness of their child (Reay, 2004:67). And this future
105
happiness is something that is needed to be constructed from today. Future
prospects of the children seem to be left to the own decision of the children.
Mothers generally stressed to show all alternatives to the children. In Aslı’s words,
“The important thing is whether I can provide her the environment in which she can
improve herself.” Future success of their children is an important target for these
professional women. The statement of Ayse was important in this respect in order
to show that they demanded their children to have a prestigious job. As Ayse plans
to live in France when her son starts school, she plans that he will grow up in
France. She says “I want him to go to Department of Politics. Every place has its
own culture. Departments of Politics are the greatest, hardest and the most
prestigious departments in France. The ones graduating from these departments
generally become politicians. I want the highest point for Evan. I want him to be the
president. I want him to have a prestigious job.”
“I want to be him/her to be happy in the work s/he has been doing” is the common
statement of all professional women. They believe in that if they can provide their
children the best alternatives, they will be successful in the future. This can be most
apparently seen in the statement of Begüm. Although she had told at the beginning
of the interview that she did not have any criteria for success, and the most
important thing was happiness for her; she later said that: “I do not know how the
world will be in the period of Irmak, what will be the criteria for success. However,
I want her to have those criteria.”
To be the ‘good mother’ is defined as delivering all the alternatives and support
for children especially related with their education, both within and outside the
household. According to Reay (2006), cultural capital together with economic
capital brings mothers feeling of empowerment to intervene in their children’s
educational trajectory. Thus, professional women have an active role in the
education and socialization of their children, starting within the household,
continuing in the schools and through extracurricular activities.
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6.3. Choice of School and Extracurricular Activities
Beck-Gernsheim (2002:89) argues that developments in medicine, psychology and
pedagogy make it possible to shape children’s lives: “on the one hand physical
disabilities become more open to treatment; on the other hand with the
developments in psychological research, lays greater stress upon the early years of
life and blame lost opportunities of development upon a lack of support.” This
emphasis on the lack of support gives the primary responsibility to the family in
giving child-related decisions. Beck-Gernsheim continues that the increase in
average income makes childrearing opportunities that had formerly been reserved
for a tiny social layer widely available. It is stated before that Beck-Gernsheim’s
arguments are significant for this study, however they are not conscious about both
class and gender debate about the child caring. Although fathers are more involved
in the decisions about the educational concerns of the children, mothers continue to
play the most important role in general. Besides, it is hard to tell that the majority of
the families can have the opportunities to supply this necessary ‘support’ to their
children. However, professional women analysed in this study seem to be under the
influence of this ideology giving the family the major role in the caring and
education of their children.
The studies, which are conscious about the class differences, show that, middle and
upper class parents may do anything for their children to acquire the appropriate
educational credentials that will lead to success in the labour market (Crompton
2006:165). The choices of school and after school activities that lead to their selfdevelopment
are highly given importance. Not surprisingly, Crompton tries to
understand these ways of actions using the Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’.
“Habitus generates ‘things to do or not to do, things to say or not to say, in relation
to the probable upcoming future” (as cited in Crompton, 2006:166) “Thus, from
relatively early ages children acquire (or not to acquire) behaviours appropriate (or
not appropriate) for educational success.”
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Vincent and Martin’s stress on the importance given to the preschool education is
relevant to formulate my reasoning of choosing mothers of preschool children.
According to Vincent and Martin (2002:51), “parental anxiety about the children’s
academic success begins in the preschool years. A growing number of middle-toupper-
class families have their children in preschool ages participate in ballet,
music, gymnastic and drama classes. The advertisements of the institutions
delivering these services, propose the benefits of these extra curricular activities for
intellectual, social and creative development towards a ‘good start’ to academic
success at school.” These activities are either demanded from the kindergartens they
plan to send their children, and/or supported by the mothers themselves through the
courses. The interviewees with older children mentioned about at least one such
activity their children has been participating in, the others stressed about their plans.
Reay (2006:105) suggests that “parents’ work in support of their children’s
schooling should increasingly be viewed as an economic as well as an educational
activity. What is uncontestable is that supporting schooling has a substantial
economic impact on families. As it increases the workload and spending of all
families, it compounds the existing educational inequalities between families.”
What she had found out in her own research corresponds with the finding of this
study and her stress on the economic capital was also important in order to show
that not all the mothers can have such an opportunity for sending their children to
courses.
Economic capital also had a contributory and a compounding impact, not just in
relation to the ability to pay for domestic help. A few of middle class families I
interviewed were spending over 100 pound a week on private tuition and
cultural activities such as music and drama for their child – more than some of
the working class lone mothers on benefit were getting in total to live on. The
norm, however, among middle-class families was to pay for at least one out-ofschool
activity, while a sizeable minority paid for their children to attend two or
three. (Reay, 2006:111)
However it should not be forgotten what was quoted from Bourdieu above, about
the importance of the cultural capital in the choice of these activities. Also
according to Reay (2006:111) “cultural capital together with economic capital
108
brings mothers feeling of empowerment to intervene in their children’s educational
trajectory.”
As discussed in the previous chapter, professional women stressed about the
qualifications of even the childminder coming home to look after children.
However, as they have been following a professional path in their mothering, they
all give great importance to what parenting manuals, doctors or pedagogues tell
them. They all mentioned that it has been told them that (from any resources they
use) children should be sent to kindergarten after three years old. Derya, who was
not satisfied with the childminder, said she sent her daughter when she was two.
“Psychologists and pedagogues say children should be with only one person
looking after them until three. I heard it also from a paediatrician, she also
emphasized it. She said I had done wrong. However, it was too late,” said Derya.
All the others have preferred or are planning to send their children to kindergartens
around the age of three.
There is a changing sector for the childcaring activities outside the household.
Apart from the kindergarten as pre-school child caring centres, there are increasing
numbers of play groups today. In modern urban societies, the house is defined as
the safest place in order to be protected from the danger of the outer world for
middle classes. As it is stated above, the families are more and more living in the
suburban apartment blocks, and they demand this for providing their children the
opportunity to socialize. Although this advantage of these living places are stated
by women themselves; the ones, who prefer to send their children to play groups
mention about the socialisation problem of the child. The minority, who did not
send their children to play groups, also tell about the advantage of living in
apartment blocks, where their children have the opportunity to socialize with the
other children. Thus, while living in apartment buildings may be considered as
enough for some women, the majority is not satisfied with that.
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Play groups are the places, where children are taken at certain days for one or two
hours. Children are playing games in these places under the control of the teachers.
Some of these places may also deliver service as kindergarten for the older children.
Almost all mothers interviewed sent their children to play groups. It is generally
preferred to create an opportunity for children to meet with the other children. In
addition to the need for socialization, the other reason for sending their children to
the play groups is the professional teaching activity for the children in these places
rather than the sole caring activity performed by the childminder. As it was
mentioned above, although these women prefer higher qualifications from the
childminder, they may not be satisfied with them and prefer to send their children to
these play groups. This is related with the professional understanding of mothering
as these women generally act in accordance with the professional writings on child
caring. Secondly, they demand their children to be with the children of the families
‘like themselves’ instead of growing through a direct interaction with the
childminder of a lower class. As Reay (2006:111) finds out in her own research,
Academic work was far more likely to be “what people like us did” for the middle
class mothers than it was for working class mothers. Thus, professionalisation as
the product of professional women’s homologous habitus defines their way of
action in the same way. Although this study does not aim to and cannot generalize
the experiences of all professional women, similarities in their mothering practices
can be understood through their class positioning.
Besides, playing is not only considered as a routine and imaginary activity for
children. In play groups, children are controlled by the teachers, they are directed
by them. Children have to learn something even while playing. The controlled
environment for the children even starts from the period they spend with just
playing.
Mothers have the primary responsibility for the choice of these playgroups and
kindergartens. They generally pay attention to the activities in these schools. These
activities are delivered by the kindergartens.
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“They have normal courses in the school and they also have ballet, folklore, English
and drama as elective courses. There are many sports rooms and play houses. (Aslı)
“It is like a normal school. It has the swimming pool, sports complex. Its facilities
are great. It is a big school with high material sources.” (Zerrin)
“The former school was like a day nursery. Aysegül was not satisfied with that. The
recent one has play houses and an art house. This school also has ballet, computer
and English courses.” (Aylin)
“They have play gardens. There is an art teacher. She teaches them everything from
ceramic to marbling. They have a music teacher and an ecology teacher. They have
dance courses. They go to theatres once a month.” (Derya)
“There are many differences among the activities of the play groups. I went to one
of them once, all the children were watching TV. There is an intense schedule in the
recent one I have chosen.” (Ayça)
“He started to play chess in the kindergarten. They had English, music, art, sports
courses. They used to send a report card at the end of the year showing in which
courses the child was good.” (Fatos)
“The kindergarten I will send Kaan in the future should have tennis courts,
basketball field, swimming pool, drama club, guitar course etc.” (Begüm)
They prefer to send their children to the kindergartens supplying all these activities.
The required economical capital needed for sending these kindergartens was stated
by Zerrin. While she has been comparing two kindergartens she sent their
daughters, she said “the one my younger daughter goes is a high-cost one.
Everything depends on money. If we had paid the fee we have been recently paying
to the kindergarten my younger daughter has been going, to the kindergarten that
111
my older daughter had gone, they would also have had the chance to supply all the
opportunities this one has recently delivers.”
The future plans for their children were also asked to the mothers. Except two
women, all mothers stated that they would send their children to private schools.
Academic capital is in fact a guaranteed product of the combined effectiveness of
cultural transmission by the family and cultural transmission by the school, the
effectiveness of which depends on the amount of cultural capital directly inherited
from the family. (Bourdieu, 1984:23)
The ones stating that they would prefer public schools have still doubts about their
decisions. Aslı told they discussed whether they should send their child to public or
private school with her husband many times. She stressed they might send Derin to
summer camps in order to meet the deficiencies in the public school. She also
mentioned that if they could find a good public school in Atasehir, where they have
been living, it would be good for them. “Because there are similar families living in
Atasehir,” she said. This is a stress on the similar class positions of the families,
who can afford to live in the same place.

nci also said she planned to send her son to a ‘normal’ school. She added they
could meet his needs with the activities they would provide for him at the
weekends. According to the middle-class parents in the research of Vincent and
Ball (2006), education is an all-encompassing engagement with the child. Thus,
children have access to a wide range of ‘extracurricular’ activities. They state that
the emphasis on the ‘enrichment’ activities are shared by most of the mothers in
their sample.
All the other professional women mentioned that they would send their children to
the private schools. Private schools are firstly high-cost ones, which can only be
met by the families with high economical capital. Zerrin mentioned about the
private school her older daughter has been going, to which they paid 300 Turkish
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Liras as enrolment deposit that was stated as a ‘small fee’. Zerrin as the one giving
importance to the discipline of her daughters unlike the other mothers, mentioned
primarily about the academic success of the school. However, she also stated that
she sent them to sports lessons after school and even forced them to participate in
these activities. She said she wanted to do them both, “I do not want her to graduate
from school without even knowing a tennis racket.” One of her daughters has been
participating in the tennis courses, while the other has been going to swimming
pool.
Aylin expressed that she had preferred to give her older daughter to public school,
however they could not find any suitable one in the neighbourhood they have been
living.
Because, security is the problem in public schools. Classes are so crowded. … I
want her to go to school with the children of the families like us. They should
be at the same socio-cultural, educational, income level. I want her to be with
the children like her. (Aylin)
We will push the limits and send her to a private school. Because this
generation grows up like this. All parents say that they will send their children
to the public schools, however when the day comes they send them to private
schools. (Begüm)
We will send her to a private school. We visited one of them. It has a large
garden and a large sports complex and many other things. The child will go to
school in a secure environment. She may participate in sports activities, but also
in a secure environment. We also think about another school. They have an
English teacher in the nursery school, they are always talking in English, even
the children are encouraged to speak in English among themselves. (Derya)
I want him to have at least my own opportunities. I went to private school, my
husband had a graduate degree from an American university. We have a
standard. My child should also have this. … He will receive a higher-quality
education in private school. There is a great difference between the students of
private schools and public schools. They stand different; the ones going to
private school are more creative. It might depend on the teachers, or maybe the
social environment. (Ayça)
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The statement of Ayse was important as it shows the difference between Turkey
and the European countries. She has grown up in France and her husband is a
French guy. She expressed that she might send her son to public school and
continued like “however, it is weird to send the children to public school in Turkey.
You are a general director, you have such a position and you send your child to
public school! It is impossible! We should do what the other people like us do. We
cannot be happy in the other way.”
To sum up, socialisation and education of children are given great importance by
the professional women. Their attitudes towards socialisation and education also
have a direct relation with their class positioning. Professional women demands
their children to be socialised with the ‘child like them’ and in a secure
environment. They are all living in building complexes to provide their children the
most appropriate place to live. Besides, child caring starts to become subject to
more demands and requirements. However, it is generally forgotten that mothers
are the ones primarily responsible from child caring, not fathers. Second not all
classes can have the necessary economical and cultural capital to meet the
requirements of this new parenting role. Thus, the emphasis on education has
important in order to define primarily the new mothering role, rather than the new
parenting. Mothers are the responsible ones to give their children the best start in
life. Education is started to be delivered from the early ages within the family.
Thus, following Bourdieu, it is argued that family’s transmission of cultural capital
is “the best hidden and socially most determinant educational investment”. As Reay
(2006:113) argues “it is mothers who are making cultural capital work for children.
And it is they, more than men, who appear to be the agents of social class
reproduction.” Thus, educational facilities may be defined within the mothering
practices of women. How professional women undertake this role depends on their
social class positioning. The weight of cultural capital and economical capital
define the way these professional women’s educational investments for their
children. And this educational work of mothers intensifies the educational
inequalities and also the differences between class positioning.
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CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSION
The present study is an attempt to understand the mothering experiences of
professional women through the approaches on mothering, professionalism and
class. As a qualitative study based on the in-depth interviews with 12 women, it is a
modest attempt to give some ideas about the mothering experiences of professional
women in Turkey through the perspectives of women themselves. First of all, this is
important as I aim to enter into the privacy of the women by talking about their
mothering experiences. These women are more apparent in the society through their
professional roles. On the other hand, mothering continues to be an important
characteristic of their identities, which remains invisible in the public world like
many other womanly experiences. Thus, it is important to analyse the mothering
experiences of professional women. However, this is conducted without forgetting
how this private sphere of mothering is also affected from the constraints and
structures within the public domain.
Studies on professionalism, mothering and class are used in order to form the
theoretical background of this study. There have been two deficiencies within these
studies. Firstly, the followers of the particularistic approach analysing mothering as
a class-based phenomenon try to show this through the experiences of women, who
are not white and middle class. Universalistic approach is criticised by these
scholars as being depended on this ‘norm’ category of white and middle class
women. However, I argue in this study that class-based characteristic of mothering
can be analysed through focusing on this so-called ‘norm’ category of women.
Studying these women should not necessitate considering this experience as a
universal one. Because, focusing on the class-based acts of middle and upper class
women derive me to determine the conditions shaping such a mothering experience
and thus differentiate the experiences of the lower classes compared with these ones.
115
Secondly, the main aim of the studies about professional work, professional women
and mothering is focusing on the double burden experienced by these women in
reconciling their professional and mothering work. It is sure that discussing the
mothering experiences of the professional women will be deficient without
mentioning about the double burden. However, what is aimed within the extent of
this study is forming a direct relation between professionalism as an ideology and
mothering experiences of professional women under the effect of this ideology both
in their work and also their mothering.
The analysis of Bourdieu has a key importance for this study in three respects. First
of all, he does not determine classes just through their positioning in the production
relations. Analysing professional women necessitates considering them from a
different perspective. Bourdieu points at the importance of cultural capital as well as
economical capital in his definition of class. Professional women acquire their
positions through their professional knowledge about certain subject and thus
through cultural capital gathered fundamentally through education. Thus, their
cultural capital should be emphasized in order to show their class positioning.
Secondly, Bourdieu analyses the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity as
a dialectical relation rather than an opposition. This is important for this study as
mothering, which is generally considered as a subjective experience, has direct roots
in the objective conditions it has been shaped in. Lastly, Bourdieu stresses the
reproduction of class and the importance of family in the transmission of the cultural
capital. It is important to show that mothers have the primary responsibility in caring
activities. In addition to many researches showing this primary role as a fact, this
study has also reached the same finding that mothers rather than fathers are the
primary care-takers. Thus, the reproduction role mentioned by Bourdieu is primarily
executed by the women. Their role in the transmission of cultural capital gains
importance within this respect.
The first aim of the research has been to reveal the experiences of professional
women starting from the period of taking the decision to have a child. These
116
women’s occupational positions in the business world had one of the most
determining factors in their decisions to have children. Gendered characteristics of
professional world does not determine women as the primary actors in the public
world, thus a womanly experience of motherhood requires women’s own strategies
to play two roles; the ‘working woman’ and the ‘mothering’ role. Besides,
motherhood ideology defines women as primarily mothers and this ideology
supports the general understanding of the business world excluding women from the
labour market by arguing that they are primarily responsible from the household
tasks. Thus women have to carefully organise their time to have children generally
because of the external constraints faced in the business world and the necessity to
prove their commitment to their profession. The strategies adopted by the women
should even be observed in their decisions for the delivery period as it is a period
when women have to be away from work. One of the most striking findings of this
study is the fact that some of the professional women interviewed even make plans
about the time of their pregnancies in order not to cause an interruption in their
working schedules. However, despite their intention to take control of every stages
of pregnancy period and the very first weeks of maternity, this control is not
absolute as they have to go back to work when they are called by the employers.
Thus, their planning for the pregnancy period is not directly but indirectly
challenged by the requirements of the business world, they feel the need to control
their lives according to these external constraints. However, their control is limited
as they continue to obey the rules of the business world in order not to be excluded
from that.
This excessive control on their lives continues to be observed in their decision about
the way of giving birth and this way of action has a class-character. Many scholars
have found out that compared with the working class women, middle class women
wanted to manage their birth totally by themselves. Middle class women have
planned pregnancies and they have had greater access to the information on birth
and medical procedures. Supporting the findings of the researches on the class
character of women’s experiences in the pregnancy and birth-giving period,
117
professional women interviewed in this study wanted to have a great control on their
birth-giving. However, at this point the medical expertise has been the factor
limiting their plans. Professionalisation as an ideology had a great influence on the
mothering experiences of professional women. While they try to have an expertise in
almost all issues related with mothering, when it comes to delivering, they become
highly dependent on the physician’s own decisions. However, this is not a matter of
much complain since their trust in the professional knowledge makes them to
believe and act in accordance with the orientation of the experts, namely the
gynaecologists in this case. Thus, professionalisation as an ideology affecting
professional women may be supported through their opportunities to reach different
sources of information. However the same ideology also makes them equal with the
lower classes towards the professional knowledge of the gynaecologists. Their class
positioning may only provide them with the opportunity to experience this period of
delivery in a relatively more ‘comfortable’ way using the advantages of their higher
economical capital in private hospitals.
The effect of professionalisation ideology can be seen in their way of learning
mothering. Professional women have a wide range of access to any kind of
information sources about mothering, changing from handbooks on parenting to
internet, from pregnancy classes to the pedagogues. Having such a wide range of
sources and opportunities is directly related with their class positioning. Firstly, they
have the necessary economical capital to use all these resources. Second their social
capital makes them the chance to reach all kinds of information through their social
links. And also their cultural capital enables them to gather information about what
they need. Thus, professionalisation in mothering is related with the class habitus of
these professional women shaped through their specific composition of all these
capitals. Besides, mothering ideology, which forces women “to do the best for their
children”, is experienced by professional women in this way. It should not be
forgotten that not all women have access to use these resources. Professionalisation
in mothering showing itself through gaining expertise in mothering cannot be
experienced by all women in the same way.
118
From the above mentioned facts, it is clearly understood that professionalism as an
ideology has an effect on the mothering experiences of professional women.
However, it is hard to claim that this professionalism creates an empowerment for
the women and determine an area controlled by the women themselves. The stress
on the control derives from the fact that they do not have any control at all.
Professional women do not have a control on their bodies, as it is seen in the case of
pregnancy; they do not have a control on their professional works, as they have to
obey the externally determined schedules; and they do not have even control on their
children, as they have the need for someone else to look after their children although
they are trying to control the all areas related with the ‘other woman’ substituting
their mothering role. They continue to define themselves as the ‘real’ mother
although the mothering role is played by another woman. Besides, this loss of
control on their children despite being seen like they have the excessive control is
observed in the educative path drawn for them and the externally determined
standards according to which children should be grown up.
Choice of child-minder and the drawing of the educative path for the children
starting within the household are the two main points the women interviewed with
had many things to tell. They try to manage all these works as they have to manage
them as the ‘good’ mothers. They feel the burden to rear their children as perfect as
possible. They are the women ‘successful’ in their work places and want to be
‘successful’ in their mothering, too. However, the illusionary success in both areas
should be questioned. Their success in the work place depends on the external
standards and the evaluation of the staff having higher positions. Their success in
mothering also depends on the external standards. Even it is disputable that
mothering starts to be something evaluated according to ‘success’. What successful
mothering is and why they feel the burden to be successful in mothering? Because,
they continue to feel the burden of the patriarchal ideology, which defines them as
the primary care-takers and the as the parent responsible from the child. When they
choose to have a professional career, they should at the same time show that they
will not postpone having children and will play their roles as good mothers.
119
Professional women want to say that they have done everything for their children in
order to feel comfortable. As they are continuing to be defined as mothers primarily
rather than their professional role in the labor market, they have to be good mothers
in order not to be regretted in the society.
This is totally different from the experiences of men, who ‘try’ to combine their
professional role together with their fathering role. Husbands of the professional
women in this study have a greater role in child-related issues compared with the
traditional fathers. However, the formation of this relationship is primarily
determined by the professional women. Like determining the relationship between
the child-minder and the children, professional women also determine the relation
between the children and the fathers. They ‘push’ the fathers to spend some time
with their children and/or be active in child-related decisions. The interesting point
here is their intention for such kind of arrangements. They do not ask for the fathers’
involvement, which is traditionally defined as the women’s work, in order to have
an equal share in child caring. This involvement is rather demanded in order to
establish a closer relationship between the father and the child. Professional women
do not want to have problematic areas in their worlds. Being successful also means
to be able to eliminate these problems. Relations with their husbands may be one of
the most problematic areas; however they do not want to make the problem visible
and they do not even want to feel this unequal division of labor among parents in
child-related tasks as a problem. They firstly achieve this as they have the necessary
economical capital to purchase a domestic help from another woman. Secondly, they
want to feel themselves the parent who has the first and deepest contact. This should
not be thought as an individual choice. It should not be thought like men do not
undertake a more active role in child caring as women undertake all the
responsibility about children. Women should undertake this role as they are the ones
assessed through their performance in mothering. These women are the professional
women and they have been working in public sphere in addition to their domestic
work in the private sphere. They are under the influence of professionalism as an
120
ideology and ‘success’ takes place at the center of their lives as an evaluative
criteria. Thus, they should work to be good mothers as well as being good workers.
There is a developing body of literature on changing child caring practices, which
are important in order to conceptualize the mothering experiences of professional
women. However two major deficiencies of these studies have been identified at the
beginning of this study. First of all, most of these studies are gender-blind. Emphasis
on the changing parenting styles in these studies conceals the gendered characteristic
of the child caring work, which continues to be executed primarily by the mothers.
The findings of this study support the gendered characteristic of the parenting work.
Secondly, some of these studies do not pay attention to the class-characteristic of the
parenting role, which cannot be executed in the same way by the women of different
classes.
New parenting role, which includes delivering the children the ‘best start in life’, has
been described as the new ‘mothering’, as fathers continued to play the secondary
role. Although they have been more and more involved in the decisions related with
which primary school the children will be going, choosing the kindergartens and
extra circular activities is still done overwhelmingly by mothers. Thus the gendered
characteristic of this parenting role has been continuing.
The class-based and class-reproductive character of this mothering role is very
important. The extent of cultural capital and economical capital defines how these
professional women make educational investments for their children. This
educational work of mothers, which is conducted through their relations with the
children within the house and the choice of schools and extra-curricular activities,
intensifies the educational inequalities in the society. They want their children to be
successful in life like they have been trying to be. Childhood has also been
changing for the members of the particular classes. They start to feel the
competition even in their early years. I try to show the primary role of mothers in
organising child rearing activities in this study, however this does not mean that I
121
want to blame mothers for this changing childhood practices. Together with
children, women also feel the burden of the competition among themselves through
their children.
As a conclusion, the present study aims to reveal that mothering is first a gendered
and a class-based experience. Professional women experience mothering in
accordance with their class positioning in the society. Their economical, social and
cultural capitals determine the way they have been mothering. They are also under
the influence of the power of professionalisation ideology, which is used to be
defined within the relations of work, also in their mothering experience. Mothering
ideology defining what is “good mothering” also shows its effect in all steps taken
by women regarding their children. Thus, professional mothering of professional
women cannot be considered as an individual mania. Besides, despite the
advantages of these women coming from their relatively high class positioning,
mothering being experienced within the limits of the gendered structure increases
the burden on these women both in their professional work as mothers and in
mothering work as professionals.
122
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