OUR MOTHERS'GRIEF: Racial Ethnic Women and the Maintenance of Families
This article examines the nature and social organization of reproductive labor in the family among African-American, Chinese, and Mexican-American women in the United States during the nineteenth century. A brief description of reproductive labor of white families in colonial America is used as a po...
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Published in | Journal of family history Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 415 - 431 |
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Main Author | |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Thousand Oaks, CA
Sage Publications
01.03.1988
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Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | This article examines the nature and social organization of reproductive labor in
the family among African-American, Chinese, and Mexican-American women in the United
States during the nineteenth century. A brief description of reproductive labor of white families in
colonial America is used as a point of contrast for examining reproductive labor among groups
of racial ethnic women. The article pays special attention to the ways in which racial ethnic
women's work in maintaining the family becomes a source of resistance to the cultural assaults of
the dominant society. The concept of reproductive labor, when applied to women of color, must
be modified to account for the fact that labor in the productive sphere was required to achieve
even minimal levels of family subistence. Thus, in an historical era when the family roles of
middle-class whites had been reshaped by industrialization, driving this group of women into a
cult of domesticity, racial ethnic women were struggling with the "double day. " |
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ISSN: | 0363-1990 1552-5473 |
DOI: | 10.1177/036319908801300125 |