Brothermothering: Gender, Power, and the Parenting Strategies of Low-Income Black Single Mothers of Teenagers

Much has been made about the rise in single mother households over the past several decades, with significant focus on absent fathers and the challenges single mothers face. Black single mother households are often the face of this debate. Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews with low-income black sing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social problems (Berkeley, Calif.) Calif.), 2018-11, Vol.65 (4), p.439-455
Main Authors: Elliott, Sinikka, Brenton, Joslyn, Powell, Rachel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absent fathers
Adolescent mothers
Adolescents
Anxiety
Black people
Black youth
Childrearing practices
Children
Criminalization
Discourses
Dominance
Double standards
Fathers
Gender
Gender inequality
Households
Housing authorities
Inequality
Low income groups
Males
Men
Mothers
Parent-child relations
Parents & parenting
Power
Race
Single mothers
Single parent family
Single parents
Social classes
Youth
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Summary:Much has been made about the rise in single mother households over the past several decades, with significant focus on absent fathers and the challenges single mothers face. Black single mother households are often the face of this debate. Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews with low-income black single mothers of teenagers, we examine the racialized gender strategies these mothers develop in their carework. Findings reveal that amid current gendered and racialized discourses that emphasize the crucial role fathers play in children’s lives, and in a context of intersecting race, gender, and class inequalities, mothers draw heavily on the help of older sons—a phenomenon we call “brothermothering”—as well as other men and the symbolic power of male authority. We argue that male power in the lives of low-income black single mothers poses dilemmas and contradictions, which both support mothers in their parenting efforts and reproduce patriarchal underpinnings of “the family” based on male dominance. We situate these findings within the larger contexts of widespread anxiety about single motherhood, dominant beliefs about the roles of “mother” and “father,” gendered sexual double standards, and processes of criminalization and hyperincarceration that are particularly salient for low-income black youth, families, and communities.
ISSN:0037-7791
1533-8533
DOI:10.1093/socpro/spx021