Exploring the intergenerational responsibility of musical mothering and morality

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates the connection between musical mothering and morality, where involvement in musical practices provides middle-class women opportunities to validate their mothering. Previous studies of intensive mothering and concerted cultivation indicate struggles with competitiveness, perfectionism and anxiety. However, there is a scarcity of research that looks closely at the diversity of women’s experiences of mothering, particularly through the lens of music as a social practice. This intergenerational sociological study of Australian women applies Bourdieusian and feminist theory to expand music education research by analysing the intersection of music, motherhood, gender, class and generation. This article explores excerpts from the musical life stories of three mother–daughter relationships and the ways in which they produce musical children and maintain musical selves. The findings highlight the diversity within middle-class motherhood and the differing ways in which the field of mothering, family habitus and music are negotiated to construct musical and mothering subjectivities.