Emerging discourses on education and motherhood with Roma women

Abstract

Previous research has highlighted different factors that limit educational success and continuity in Roma children and young adults, outlining both those linked to cultural identity and those derived from structural racism, which also affect the education system. The aim of this study is to understand how gender influences education for Roma women in Spain and to identify possible changes and/or continuities for formal education and motherhood in their discourses. This research is based on a qualitative methodology, encompassing 19 interviews with Roma women aged between 18 and 67 and residents in the province of Alicante, Spain. The results show that Roma women consider education as something relevant and should not be abandoned. Success at school is not understood as an element of assimilation, nor as something incompatible with Roma identity. Quite the opposite, studying is perceived as a strategy to obtain a better job in the future, but also as a project for personal development and growth, as well as an empowerment tool, both inside and outside the community. Nonetheless, educational continuity requires not only changes in its assessment by the Roma community, but also interventions on the structural barriers that prevent balancing life and studies when a woman is already a mother.

Experiences and constructions of womanhood and motherhood among Spanish Roma women

“…We also found a contrast between informants' own experiences of motherhood and those they wished for their daughters. While most of the interviewees got married and had children at an early age, they recommended that their daughters postpone motherhood until they secured some resources, through education and employment, which would enhance economic security for themselves and their families, in line with previous analyses (Ferrández-Ferrer et al, 2022).…”

“…Similarly, other interviewees referred to childlessness as a personal decision and incorporated values of freedom, individualism, and decision-making when discussing motherhood. Data collected from non-mothers in the context of the RoMoMatteR project indicates that such narratives would have been more common in a research sample comprising Roma women with university-level education (Ferrández-Ferrer et al, 2022).…”