“What’s a Mother To Do?”

Investigating the dynamics of gentrification in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, a community in New York City, this article examines the actions of gentrifiers and the ways in which the process of gentrification affects ordinary people in their everyday lives. The focus is on school selection for children, documenting the strategies used by women, on behalf of their gentry families, to gain admission of their children to public schools outside the neighborhood. This behavior is contrasted with that of working-class and low-income residents whose children attend local schools. The rejection of local social/physical space by the gentry creates a dynamic whereby social relations between gentrifiers and lower income residents are segregated and stratified. Using participant observation and interviews, with a sample made up primarily of women, this article examines “women’s work” in the process of gentrification.