Abstract
Objective
This study examined how college-educated mothers emotionally manage the guilt they experience as they perform maternal foodwork.
Background
Maternal guilt is prevalent in the United States, as most mothers report feeling guilty about their inability to live up to the high standards set by intensive mothering. While research has shown that guilt pervades mothers’ experiences, less focus has been paid to what mothers do about the guilt they feel. With a focus on maternal foodwork, this study investigated how college-educated mothers emotionally manage the recurring feelings of guilt that arise due the pressures and expectations around feeding children.
Method
Using in-depth interviews with 35 college-educated mothers in the San Francisco Bay Area, this article examined mothers’ emotional management of guilt. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.
Results
Mothers experienced guilt as they perceived themselves to be falling short of intensive mothering’s ideals around maternal foodwork. In an effort to manage this guilt, mothers employed the gendered and classed emotional management strategy of upscaling, whereby they actively worked on their emotions in ways that paradoxically served to amplify their feelings of guilt and fuel additional physical and cognitive labor. Three approaches were central to upscaling: raising the bar, seeking control, and leveraging social comparison. All of these approaches relied on mothers’ ongoing surveillance of themselves and others.
Conclusion
The findings show how mothers’ emotional management strategies are key to the maintenance of intensive mothering ideals over time, with consequences for the reproduction of gender inequality.