I he cultural preferences of many Americans are probably expressed in a conversation between children described in Sweet Summer, a memoir by Bebe Moore Campbell. In it, she tells of four African American girls grow­ing up in the urban middle class of the 1950s. Their fathers had divorced ‘heir mothers, but to varying degrees the […]

I he cultural preferences of many Americans are probably expressed in a conversation between children described in Sweet Summer, a memoir by Bebe Moore Campbell. In it, she tells of four African American girls grow­ing up in the urban middle class of the 1950s. Their fathers had divorced ‘heir mothers, but to varying degrees the […]

In Silicon Valley, where peach orchards have disappeared and electronics fac­tories have sprouted in their stead, where low-paying jobs have replaced high — paying jobs, where neighbors are new and the singles clubs full, we meet, in Judith Stacey’s 1990 book, Brave New Families, a woman named Pam Gama. We meet her first as the […]

In Silicon Valley, where peach orchards have disappeared and electronics fac­tories have sprouted in their stead, where low-paying jobs have replaced high — paying jobs, where neighbors are new and the singles clubs full, we meet, in Judith Stacey’s 1990 book, Brave New Families, a woman named Pam Gama. We meet her first as the […]

Cruelty and Kindness in Mother-Daughter Bonds In a workshop titled “Gender, Context and Narrative” in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, in 1998, a gathering of Indian women—Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Syrian Christian, most from the Brahmin caste but some from the matrilineal Nayar, and others from the Ezhava and Pulaya—told stories of their grandmothers, their mothers, and themselves. […]

Cruelty and Kindness in Mother-Daughter Bonds In a workshop titled “Gender, Context and Narrative” in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, in 1998, a gathering of Indian women—Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Syrian Christian, most from the Brahmin caste but some from the matrilineal Nayar, and others from the Ezhava and Pulaya—told stories of their grandmothers, their mothers, and themselves. […]

If, through modern Western eyes, the Greenbergs of this ad were a normal family, we could imagine them feeling that family life superseded all other aspects of life. That is, according to modern conventional wisdom, a happy family life is an end in ilself. Earning and spending money are the means for achieving this end. […]

If, through modern Western eyes, the Greenbergs of this ad were a normal family, we could imagine them feeling that family life superseded all other aspects of life. That is, according to modern conventional wisdom, a happy family life is an end in ilself. Earning and spending money are the means for achieving this end. […]

An advertisement for Quaker Oats cereal in an issue of Working Mother mag­azine provides a small window on the interplay between consumption and the application of the idea of efficiency to private time in modem America.1 In the ad, a mother, dressed in a business suit, affectionately hugs her smil­ing son. Beneath the image, we […]

An advertisement for Quaker Oats cereal in an issue of Working Mother mag­azine provides a small window on the interplay between consumption and the application of the idea of efficiency to private time in modem America.1 In the ad, a mother, dressed in a business suit, affectionately hugs her smil­ing son. Beneath the image, we […]