Inner-City Single Black Mothers’ Gender-Related Childrearing Expectations and Goals

Abstract

Semi-structured interviews with nine U.S. Midwestern inner-city single Black mothers of young children were analyzed using inductive qualitative methods to determine similarities and differences in their expectations and goals for sons versus daughters. Drawing on critical race feminism, we developed links between these ideas, mothers' personal experiences with men, and prevailing Black gender ideologies. Mothers valued independence and strength in daughters and hoped to prevent early sexual activity. Mothers with sons couched their aspirations in terms of counter-examples but were fatalistic. Childrearing goals reflected fears based on personal experiences.

Hidden Figures: Calculated Responses to Sexism and Racism in 1960s America

“…Another coping mechanism of Black parents is to socialize Black girls and boys differently (e.g., Hughes et al, ; Sharp & Ispa, ). A Black mother's ultimate goal for her daughter was survival in a world dominated by White men and marked by the sexual assault of Black women (Collins, ).…”

“…Black boys and men, too, face precarious situations in a White‐dominated world. They are frequently viewed as hypermasculine, aggressive, and potentially dangerous (hooks, ; Sharp & Ispa, ). Compared to Black girls, Black boys experience more discrimination.…”

The Moral Perils of a Superstrong Black Mother

“…Feminists have challenged this morally idealized representation even when acknowledging that it represents important qualities Black women have had to cultivate. Through her practice of care for Betsy, Dotty has come to embody the subject position and virtues associated with this ideal type, one whose primary task is to take care of and protect others, especially her children (Sharp and Ipsa ). These qualities and virtues include being “self‐reliant and resourceful” (Collins :157), “assertive” (Blackman ), “self sacrificing” (Beauboeuf‐Lafontant ), and above all, as the name implies, “strong.” This overarching quality of strength so often associated with the “stereotypical black woman” encompasses a range of other related or synonymous attributes, including being “authoritarian, compelling, competent, courageous, decisive, emphatic, fiery, firm, loud, persistent, powerful, tenacious, vigorous, and zealous” (Blackman :105).…”

“…These qualities and virtues include being “self‐reliant and resourceful” (Collins :157), “assertive” (Blackman ), “self sacrificing” (Beauboeuf‐Lafontant ), and above all, as the name implies, “strong.” This overarching quality of strength so often associated with the “stereotypical black woman” encompasses a range of other related or synonymous attributes, including being “authoritarian, compelling, competent, courageous, decisive, emphatic, fiery, firm, loud, persistent, powerful, tenacious, vigorous, and zealous” (Blackman :105). While not all of these characteristics may seem to be virtues, scholars of African American experience have argued their historical necessity from slavery onward and note that they continue to be essential attributes for Black women living within a contemporary and still racist America (Beauboeuf‐Lafontant ; Blackman ; Collins ; hooks 1992; Miles ; Sanders and Bradley ; Sharp and Ipsa ). Strength, in all its many forms, is needed because the task of caring for and protecting oneself and one's family demands struggle—or to borrow an old expression once used by formerly enslaved Black women—“straggling.” Miles states: “‘Straggle’ had an invented meaning—not just to stray, as the dictionary would have it, but to struggle, strive, and drag all at once.…”

Culture, gender, and the first memories of black and white American students

“…When compared with Euro-Americans, African-American mothers have been found to be more intrusive in their parenting style, interrupting the infant's play and trying to steer the infant's behavior in a desired direction (Bradley, Corwyn, McAdoo, & Garcia Coll, 2001;Ipsa et al, 2004). And in a recent intensive case study of low-income AfricanAmerican mothers, the development of respect in toddlers was a primary childrearing goal (Sharp & Ipsa, 2009). The parents' description of a respectful child was one who was polite and followed the rules laid down by adults.…”