Different Transitions into Working Motherhood: Discourses of Asian, Hispanic, and African American Women

Little is known about how diverse women perceive, talk about, and enact their transitions into working motherhood in ways that reflect (and are shaped by) their social identities. While we do not mean to imply that these 16 Asian, Hispanic, and African American women are representative of the variety of women who self-categorize themselves in these particular identity groups, we do want to display the ways in which their discourses about their transitions are suggestive of different constructions within and across their ethnic categories. As such, their discourse conveys their struggles over and the interplay among mainstream United States and diverse cultural values in work and family considerations as well as their family structures of support.