El papel del Bibliotecólogo y de las bibliotecas escolares en el desarrollo de

All of the mothers in this study were born between 1935 and 1970, years when the social pattern for females was marriage, children and home making (Dyhouse, 2002). I have already stated in Chapter Four that the age gap between the mothers is not significant to this research, but their collective viewpoint is important. The mothers grew up at a time when the accepted norm was for women to have sole domestic and child rearing responsibility (Ribbens, 1994). This is reflected unanimously in the mothers’ narratives, despite prevalent feminist activity to challenge women’s position in the home during these years. In all cases, the women were stay-at-home mothers and in heterosexual marriages. Men occupied the role of breadwinner and only in a few cases did women have careers to return to following motherhood. This is reflected in the mothers’ narratives, where the social norms in which the mothers were raised run parallel to Tara and Kathy’s:

‘You grow up, you go to work at 16, you get married and eventually stop going to work to have children, that’s how we were bought up’. [Tara, mother]

‘I mean (name of eldest daughter) is 25 now. I was married by then and the thought of her being married and settling down and having kids is shocking! (Laughs) I can’t imagine any of my girls settling down anytime soon [...] when you were in your mid twenties, then you did get married. When I was that age, that’s what you did’. [Kathy, mother] The ingrained social behaviour of the habitus is evident here, for the mothers’ unconscious practice through marriage and subsequent motherhood is self- regulated by a set of unwritten rules (Bourdieu, 1990). Ribbens (1994) develops the argument of the sequential nature of marriage and having children, suggesting that the husband and wife relationship becomes absorbed by prescribed family values as soon as they become mother and father. In this regard, all of the mothers’ relationships followed the norms of the social construction of parenting, in the same way that Kathy acknowledges that getting married was ‘what you did’ in your mid-twenties.

Taruh (daughter) made the connection between feminism and the importance of choice, showing a generational perspective on whether to remain a homemaker or return to work: ‘If you choose to take on the traditional housewife role … that is entirely your decision …it doesn’t mean you are anti-feminist, it means you are making the choice for yourself’.

Steph also reveals an understanding of ‘how things worked’ when she was young, but she shares her habitus more explicitly:

‘We done it the right way, we got engaged, we got married, we still worked, then we had our children and we stopped working, but now that side of it is all different, definitely’. [Steph, mother]

Steph talks of doing family (Morgan, 2011) ‘the right way’. For Steph, the family is her ‘structuring structure’ (Bourdieu, 1990: 53). Having grown up as the eldest, helping her Mum care for her six brothers and sisters with little

money, her habitus reflects the importance she places on her family values. Steph continues with her caring role as a grandmother with adult children:

‘As regards a mother, I mean I’ve always, I would give up everything for my children and even now I would do the same thing. If (son) said can you look after (grandson) seven days a week I would do it and if it meant giving up all what I’m doing for myself I would do it, because the majority of my life has been aimed at the kids’. [Steph, mother]

Elle also acknowledged that she is working as a child-minder to fit in with her daughters’ needs, despite them being aged between 18 and 23 ‘If I didn’t have a family I probably wouldn’t have done it’. Eleanor, her daughter interviewed for this research, is already married and has set up her own home.

All of the mothers followed the traditional and stereotypical transition from single women to married mothers. Tia, the youngest of the mothers, had a similar yet culturally different experience, as she entered an arranged marriage. Tia’s recollection of ‘drifting into marriage’ is in contrast to Bhopal’s (2010) discussion of arranged marriages in the UK, which are frequently viewed as enforced and exploitative:

‘I got a temporary job in customer services. I loved it, did that for six months. During that time my Father started looking for a man for me to marry, I had an arranged marriage and just drifted into marriage. Got married, I officially got married at 19 and my Asian wedding was at the age of 20. Got married, lived in the extended family for four and a half years […] Had my first daughter when I was 21 and second daughter at 24’. [Tia, mother]

Leigh also experienced cultural differences as she was raised and married in Jamaica, but had her daughters after she had migrated to the UK. Leigh and Tia faced multiple inequalities due to the intersectionality of their gender, religions and ethnicities (Walby, 2009). Despite cultural differences, for both Tia and Leigh, the social pattern of leaving school and going to work,

followed by marriage and children remained the same. For all of the mothers, class distinctions were inherent in factors that had a bearing, significant or otherwise, on their past options and future choices.