Nurture and work in the middle class?Imagery from women's magazines

When “Best I Can” is Not Enough: Welfare Managers’ Appraisal of Clients’ Mothering Practices

“…Managers’ emphasis on economic nurturing is evident in their expectations for both meeting children's needs and prioritizing work (see Keller ). The demands of work and family are often presented as incompatible, resulting in a “no‐win situation” that mothers must navigate (Hays ).…”

“…For economic nurturing, I used work by Keller (, ) and Johnston and Swanson () to develop codes focused on (1) encouraging work outside of the home, (2) talking about the importance of providing resources for children, and (3) making the connection between work outside the home and nurturing children. While the nurturing component is poignant in conceptualizing this ideology, in my analysis I do also discuss partial endorsements for this mothering ideology in which managers encourage work outside of the home without explicitly discussing the connection to how this provides for children.…”

“…Economic nurturing initially emerged as a means to justify women's (namely white women's) entrance into the workplace (Keller , ). Specifically, work outside of the home was paired with a traditionally feminine attribute, “nurturing,” to uphold traditional constructions of white womanhood.…”

“…Specifically, work outside of the home was paired with a traditionally feminine attribute, “nurturing,” to uphold traditional constructions of white womanhood. Magazines were a central space where work outside the home was framed as a form of nurturing to make it compatible with femininity (Johnston and Swanson ; Keller , ).…”

“…Economic nurturing offers a way to frame family and work demands as compatible rather than competing with one another. Specifically, economic nurturing frames work outside the home as a way to provide for children (Johnston and Swanson ; Keller , ). This type of parenting is evident in Damaske's () findings that many women frame their decisions to work outside of the home as “for the family,” focusing on how their decisions meet the financial needs of their children.…”