The Emotional Work of Care:

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The Emotional Work of Care

• Inequalities in Capitals and Mothers Emotional
  Labour in Education

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Concerns of this Paper

• To focus on the significance of caring in the
  educational field- particularly, to highlight the
  nature of mothers involvement in childrens
  education as a form of gendered moral care work
  and to bring it from private consideration into
  public debate
• To describe the educational care work done by
  mothers at school transfer relative to different
  social positionings, and to discuss the tensions
  between the idiosyncratic nature of this care and
  the normalised expectations of care
  institutionalised within the educational system
• To explain the relationship between the gender
  inequality associated with the allocation of this
  care to mothers, and the inequalities between
  mothers relative to their capacities to access
  and activate sets of resources or capitals

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Theoretical Framework- Emotional Care Work and
Inequalities

• Interdisciplinary discourse used to problematise
  the concept of care and how it applies in the
  educational field. Lynch (1989) on love labour as
  a form of uncommodifiable care work. Caring for
  and about (Ungerson 1990), emotional work and
  intimate relationships (Duncombe and Marsden
  1993, 1996, 1998), Hochschild (1983, 1989) on
  emotional management and gendered relations.
• Feminist moral philosophers on care and its
  centrality to moral dispositions and behaviour -
  (Nussbaum 1995 2001, Bubeck, 1995, Sevenhuijsen
  1998)

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Mothers Care and the Educational Field

• A reductionist and gender biased discourse of
  parental involvement (David et al. 1993, Reay
  1998, 2000) Feminist sociological interest in
  school choice at transfer (David et al. 1994,
  Reay and Lucey 2000, Reay 2000, OBrien 2001)
• Mothering/caring work in education generally
  (Lareau 1989, Smith 1996, Walkerdine and Lucey
  1989, Plummer 2000, Skeggs 1998, Smith 2005).
• This paper draws on Bourdieus thesis of
  capitals in the context of the production and
  (re)production of care, and Allatts expansion of
  the idea of emotional capital as educational
  advantage.

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Context for this Research-Mothers Emotional Care
Work at School Transfer (OBrien 2005)

• Based on a PhD study examining care work of
  twenty five mothers at school transfer, chosen by
  theoretical sampling- social class, marital
  status, ethnicity, engagement in paid work,
  sexual orientation and recently migrated.
• Study sought to explore the nature of emotional
  care work, its problematics and tensions relative
  to various positionings, and to understand the
  meaning this work held for mothers.

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Mothers in Sample by Category (marrmarried,
co-habcohabiting, sepseparated, al
singlealways single)
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Capitals and the Production of Care in Education

• Key Findings-
• The significant issue of resources and capitals
  available to do this gendered care work
• -care is not naturally or magically produced, it
  is shaped and indeed constrained by economic,
  cultural, social and emotional capitals in the
  educational field. As Bourdieu has suggested
  these are interrelated resources.
• Emotional capital is understood as those internal
  emotional resources and/or emotional supports
  accessed through personal emotional support of an
  intimate or friend. A capital produced through
  emotional connection and emotional recognition.
  (and not necessarily through heterosexual
  marriage!)
• Limitless care and/or lack of other resources
  depletes emotional capital daily and well-being.

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Figure 1 The Moral Encoding of Mothers Emotional
Work
A
The Cognitive Order Gender Ideologies
B
Understandings of Emotional Work Mothers
Narratives of love, ambivalence, inalienability
of care, essentialist and feminist positions
E 1
E 2
School Work Researching, Phoning,
Deciding, Meeting Teachers, Organising, Homework
, Listening, Exam Support, Transporting, Extra
Curricular
General Emotional Work Listening, Feeding,
Supporting, Thinking, Talking, Worrying,
Transporting, Managing
C
The Moral Order The Moral Imperative to Care.
Mothers Habitus Social Practices and
Dispositions Relative to Positionings
Social Positionings Class, Race, Ethnicity,
Sexual Orientation, Paid Work
D
Capacity to Access and Activate Capitals
The Resources Order Forms of Capital Economic
Capital Cultural Capital Social Capital Emotional
Capital
F
FAMILY CONTEXT
SCHOOL CONTEXT
TIME
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The Resources Order and CareCategorising
Capitals (Bourdieu 1984 and Allatt 1993)

• Economic capital-assigned a value 1-4, income
  rated v. low to high based on lt 29,000, low
  29,000-I25, adequate I x 2, gt high I x 2.
• Credentialised cultural capital 1-4- Educational
  qualifications on continuum v. low to high based
  on v low, primay level, low junior cert.,
  adequate leaving cert. and high college degree.
• Social Capital-social groups, neighbours and
  friends that can give social advantage
• Emotional capital 1-4 Intimate emotional
  supports available to mother

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Patterns of Economic and Cultural Capital
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Relationships between Capitals
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Accessing and Activating Capitals

• Resources are not automatically translated into a
  product-care (Lareau et al. 1999, Reay 2000) ! It
  takes effort, time and energy to activate these
  capitals to benefit the child.
• Idiosyncrasy-
• Mothers positioning and habitus-Anna whose
  sexual orientation meant difficulties activating
  cultural capital in the educational field
• Problems of paid work
• Time away from care in paid work may increase
  mothers emotional capital and capacity to care
• Marginality
• Masha from Dubai and Ellie found it not
  posssible to access the full potential of this
  capital from their marginal positionings and
  relative to the lack of economic and emotional
  resources they experienced at this time in
  Ireland.

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Specifics of Capitals and School Transfer

• Economic Capital-is required for school fees,
  subscriptions, uniforms, books and equipment,
  extracurricular activities, transport and hidden
  day to day schooling costs
• -no money no choice I wouldnt have the money
  for the other school either because their books
  are too expensive, here you can rent..
• -having money means choices
• ButHaving choices can mean more emotional work
  (Ruth),
• Cultural capital-seems to be the capital par
  excellence in discerning and supporting academic
  work-example of Traveller women. But moral care
  sometimes requires mothers to use cultural
  capital in unexpected resistances to schooling
  for the childs happiness (Anna) or because of
  wider familial demands (Janet, Marie)
• Social capital- pressing those buttons to gain
  access to schools, various forms of social
  capital in context. Being a teacher, an insider.
  Ellie talks of her lack of social capital.

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Emotional Capital and how is it accessed and used
in care?

• A gendered capital Our emotional energy and
  skills to care for ourselves, and those we are
  in relationship with. Resilience, positivity,
  connectedness, empathy used through time and to
  make time to care.
• Interrelated with other capitals-but could have
  money, friends and education and still feel
  low-illness, depression, bereavement,
  unemployment, separation. Running on empty! But
  not quite and not allowed to not care (or
  children may be taken into care-Brigids
  experience as a Traveller).
• Emotional capital maintains the circle of care
  (Bubeck 1995)-being tied to the inalienable work
  of care even when they lack this basic
  resource-creates frustration, guilt and feelings
  of inadequacy. Facilitates ones sense of
  identity as a moral person finding the crock of
  gold. Emotional capital links one to the
  imperative to care!

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Figure 1 Spatial Metaphor Mapping Mothers
Access to Capitals
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Figure 2 Spatial Metaphor Contrasting Capitals
for Pauline (Working Class) and Anna (Middle
Class)
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Conclusions? -Tackling Inequalities in Emotional
Care

• Is justice then a question of redistribution of
  capitals?
• Partly, yes, in that inequalities between women
  make it difficult to care and impact on their
  well-being and their families..time, money
• How or can emotional capital be redistributed?
• Mothers emotional capital can be increased
  through less stress of absence of other capitals.
  The question is how to increase caring
  connections and that is more a political problem
  and of making care central to life in all
  contexts (Fraser 2000, Hochchild 1995).

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Tackling Care Inequalities contd.

• Is redistribution of capitals sufficient for
  equality in care?
• No, because activating capitals to do care work
  is subject to positionings, and inequalities of
  recognition, and to idiosyncrasies that arise
  from these. Moreover, issues of respect and power
  are fundamental -tackling patriarchal familial
  relations but how?
• Tackling care inequalities must also be about
  gender ideology and inequality as they have been
  institutionalised, as the resources order and
  moral and gendered orders are linked.
• Instances of ambivalence in womens narratives
  showed that being tied to intensive care even
  when one has the resources to carry out the work
  means ones development and well-being as a woman
  are curtailed. So build up mens emotional
  capital?