A Southern encounter: Maternal body work and low‐income mothers in South Africa

Ameeta Jaga,Bianca Stumbitz

doi:10.1111/gwao.12527

Ameeta Jaga, Bianca Stumbitz

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12527

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Abstract

This article explores the maternal body work practices of black low‐income mothers from resource‐poor urban spaces in South Africa. Using Southern Theory to open our analytical lens, we recognize that location has implications for how we understand the embodiment of gender and the lactating body in the global South. We argue that maternal body work, as one form of gendered embodiment, must be understood in a postcolonial landscape where histories of colonization and indigenous gender orders continue to shape how women respond to work conditions and how they manage the competing demands of work and breastfeeding. Our analysis from 51 in‐depth interviews conducted in Cape Town, demonstrates that maternal body work practices are interpreted through the entanglement of embodiment and work and non‐work spaces. By emphasizing contextual specificities relating to low‐income workers' living, working and family realities, we advance studies on maternal body work and employment from the global South.

Highlights

Acknowledging the effects of space and location on the embodiment of gender is rare in organizational research
Maternal body work can be understood in a postcolonial landscape where histories of colonization together with indigenous gender orders continue to shape how women respond to work conditions and how they manage the practice of breastfeeding at work
While mothers were entitled to claiming a percentage of their salary via the national unemployment insurance fund (UIF) when on maternity leave, we discovered a lack of claiming of funds

Summary

Introduction

Acknowledging the effects of space and location on the embodiment of gender is rare in organizational research. By recognizing the Northern hegemony in knowledge production (Collyer, Connell, Maia, & Morrell, 2019), we open the space to add empirical richness from the South to studies in the field, and theoretical innovation, concepts and ontologies. These can be of relevance both because the North is experiencing increased poverty, inequality and precarity (Comaroff & Comaroff, 2012), and because the return to work is a key barrier to breastfeeding globally

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