Negotiating Motherhood: Social Expectations, Institutional Challenges, and Shared Caregiving Practices

Abstract

The present paper delves into some experiences of contemporary mothers to explore how structural constraints and individual agency are negotiated within the interplay of overlapping spheres of social expectations, institutional challenges, and shared caregiving practices. Building on narrative interviews with a sample of mothers from northern Italy, this study explores how maternal identity is socially and relationally constructed. Against the theoretical background of intensive mothering and parenting as a social construct, the analysis reveals tensions between the gender asymmetry of parental responsibility, individualistic and collective caregiving practices, and the redefinition of heterogeneous maternal subjectivities and expressions.