Género y clase social

This article characterizes young women’s discourses on motherhood/fatherhood in the Maule region, central-south Chile. The relevance of this analysis is given by the fact that parenthood implies -beyond biological birth- a set of practices and norms organized around gendered criteria. Historically, these norms and practices have been crucial in helping define women’s role in society and in socially allocating responsibilities over social reproduction. We use a qualitative approach, based on semi-structured interviews which were analyzed following the principles of thematic coding. Our results indicate that such discourses are constantly being renegotiated in women’s daily lives, with notable differences by level of formal education taken as proxy for social class. This suggests a stratification of beliefs and practices regarding motherhood.