FEELING COMMUNAL MOTHERHOOD: BLACK WOMEN'S NAVIGATIONS OF CLASS, GENDER, AND PARENTAL STATUS

This study uncovers dynamics often underrepresented in existing scholarship by examining the complex relationship between Black womanhood and communal mothering practices. Although current research about Black motherhood often attends to the severing of Black children from their mothers through slavery and its afterlives, as well as the mothering that transcends biological boundaries, which is commonplace in Black communities, little scholarship empirically considers these factors alongside Black women's experiences of gender inequality in the family. This study draws on semi-structured interviews with 80 Black mothers and childless women to ask how parental status and social class shape their experiences with communal motherhood. I employ affect theory to reveal the complex emotions and pressures accompanying communal mothering practices. While often upheld as a source of strength and resilience within Black communities, these practices can simultaneously become sites of ambivalence and gendered obligation. This inquiry considers the broader societal implications of Black women's communal orientations towards care and mother work and how it feels to participate in or abstain from these practices. Moreover, this dissertation charts similarities and differences between childless Black women and mothers and details how social class colors Black women's experiences of communal mothering.