IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jfamec/v45y2024i2d10.1007_s10834-023-09931-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Invested Mothering: An Intersectional Analysis of Mothers’ Feminized Breadwinning Strategies Under State-Mandated Child Support Arrangements

Author

Listed:
  • Adriana Ponce

    (Southwestern University)

Abstract

This article conceptualizes invested mothering to explain how mothers typically serve as both primary caregivers and financial providers under court-mandated shared parenting. A line of feminist literature has conceptualized hegemonic expectations of women’s caregiving through the umbrella theory of intensive mothering, and family scholars have studied how these ideologies influence parental investments in children. I assert that more research is necessary at the juncture of this scholarship, especially in contemporary family forms which reflect most parents’ reality. In this study, I analyze 46 in-depth interviews with parents under state-mandated child support arrangements as an empirical case of shared parenting experiences. I show that the onus is on mothers to secure financial resources for children’s basic and enrichment needs through relational, paid, and invisible work strategies—mothers enact invested mothering. An intersectional analysis reveals the distinct invested parenting work that mothers, especially low-income Black mothers who are the most disadvantaged, perform as adaptive strategies in the face of interlocking sexism, systemic racism, and historical economic inequality. Overall, mothers’ financial role as primary breadwinners is feminized as their contributions are unsupported, unacknowledged, and undervalued by both the courts and fathers.

Suggested Citation

  • Adriana Ponce, 2024. "Invested Mothering: An Intersectional Analysis of Mothers’ Feminized Breadwinning Strategies Under State-Mandated Child Support Arrangements," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 354-368, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:45:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10834-023-09931-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10834-023-09931-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10834-023-09931-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10834-023-09931-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Devah Pager, 2003. "The mark of a criminal record," Natural Field Experiments 00319, The Field Experiments Website.
    2. Sabino Kornrich & Frank Furstenberg, 2013. "Investing in Children: Changes in Parental Spending on Children, 1972–2007," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(1), pages 1-23, February.
    3. Coley, Rebekah Levine & Sims, Jacqueline & Votruba-Drzal, Elizabeth, 2016. "Family expenditures supporting children across income and urbanicity strata," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 129-142.
    4. Vogel, Lisa Klein, 2020. "Help me help you: Identifying and addressing barriers to child support compliance," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    5. Sandra M Florian, 2018. "Motherhood and Employment Among Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks: A Life Course Approach," Post-Print hal-03420684, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Terri Friedline & Fenaba Addo, 2024. "Introduction to the Special Issue on “The Political and Economic Contexts of Families’ Financial Lives”," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 251-255, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mst. Khadezatul Kobra & Md. Emaj Uddin Ph.D & G. M. Abdul Wahab Ph. D & Md. Awal Kabir Ph. D, 2024. "Socioeconomic Status and Children’s Math Proficiency Development: The Role of Parental Math Expectation, Investment, and Involvement," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(4), pages 1333-1344, April.
    2. Allison Dwyer Emory, 2019. "Unintended Consequences: Protective State Policies and the Employment of Fathers with Criminal Records," Working Papers wp19-04-ff, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    3. Meroni, Elena Claudia & Piazzalunga, Daniela & Pronzato, Chiara D., 2018. "Use of Extra-School Time and Child Behaviours: Evidence from the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 11606, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Steven Raphael, 2014. "The New Scarlet Letter? Negotiating the U.S. Labor Market with a Criminal Record," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number nsc.
    5. Button, Patrick & Walker, Brigham, 2020. "Employment discrimination against Indigenous Peoples in the United States: Evidence from a field experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    6. Omar Al-Ubaydli & John A. List, 2019. "How natural field experiments have enhanced our understanding of unemployment," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 3(1), pages 33-39, January.
    7. Emily Beam & Priya Mukherjee & Laia Navarro-Sola, 2022. "Lowering Barriers to Remote Education: Experimental Impacts on Parental Responses and Learning," Working Papers 2022-030, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    8. Bastien Michel & Camille Hémet, 2022. "Custodial versus non-custodial sentences: Long-run evidence from an anticipated reform," PSE Working Papers halshs-03899897, HAL.
    9. Andrew Leigh, 2020. "The Second Convict Age: Explaining the Return of Mass Imprisonment in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 96(313), pages 187-208, June.
    10. Michelle Maroto, 2018. "Saving, Sharing, or Spending? The Wealth Consequences of Raising Children," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2257-2282, December.
    11. OKONKWO, Nnamdi Sylvester & EBIE, Sunday Onyekwuma, 2024. "Allegations of Racial Identity Factor in Job Placement in Germany: Africans in the Diaspora Experience," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(4), pages 1917-1925, April.
    12. Erin Hatton, 2024. "Work Therapy: Extractive Labour as Therapeutic Intervention," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(2), pages 399-417, April.
    13. Christopher Wildeman & Kristin Turney & Youngmin Yi, 2016. "Paternal Incarceration and Family Functioning," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 665(1), pages 80-97, May.
    14. Magnus Lofstrom & Steven Raphael, 2016. "Crime, the Criminal Justice System, and Socioeconomic Inequality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 103-126, Spring.
    15. Amanda Agan & Sonja Starr, 2016. "Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Statistical Discrimination: A Field Experiment," Working Papers 598, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    16. Dworsky, Amy & Gitlow, Elissa, 2017. "Employment outcomes of young parents who age out of foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 133-140.
    17. Nicholas A. Wright, 2024. "Girls Dominate, Boys Left Behind: Decomposing the Gender Gap in Education Outcomes in Jamaica," Working Papers 2410, Florida International University, Department of Economics.
    18. Alexandra Baier & Loukas Balafoutas & Tarek Jaber-Lopez, 2023. "Ostracism and theft in heterogeneous groups," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(1), pages 193-222, March.
    19. Devah Pager, 2007. "The Use of Field Experiments for Studies of Employment Discrimination: Contributions, Critiques, and Directions for the Future," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 609(1), pages 104-133, January.
    20. Eliot L. Sherman, 2020. "Discretionary Remote Working Helps Mothers Without Harming Non-mothers: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(3), pages 1351-1374, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:45:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10834-023-09931-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.