“That’s How Family Is: We Take, Give, and Give Back”: Low-Income Mothers’ (In)ability to Rely on Kin at the Intersection of Familism and Individualism

ABSTRACT

This study examines the relational dynamics of low-income mothers’ involvement in kin networks at the intersection of familism and individualism. Drawing on in-depth interviews in Israel, it identifies four patterns. Two consist of high involvement and good relationships, with one based on generalized and the other on balanced reciprocity. These patterns characterized the few mothers who had more resourceful networks and a stable source of income. However, the two most prevalent patterns consist of low involvement and conflictual relationships. Mothers who experienced exclusion found it difficult to deal with competing expectations and felt highly frustrated with kin. By contrast, mothers who described withdrawal appear to have given up on the ideal of familism and opted for individualistic values instead.

KEYWORDS:

• Family
• inequality, poverty and mobility
• race, gender and class

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Orly Benjamin, Einat Lavee, and the three TSQ anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This study focuses on Israeli Jewish mothers and does not include Israeli Palestinian women for theoretical and practical reasons. Low-income Israeli Palestinian women have a complex relationship with the Israeli welfare state and face challenges that their Jewish counterparts do not experience (Rosenhek 1999). This important issue, however, is beyond the scope of the present study. Additionally, to include Israeli Palestinian women in a study dealing with such sensitive issues as kin relationships in the context of poverty would have required interviewers fluent in Arabic. Unfortunately, no such interviewers were available for the present study.

2. The research team included the author and two graduate students who conducted the interviews. A professional transcriber transcribed the interviews.

3. Israel has a mandatory military service requirement for all Jewish men and women aged 18. Married women and women who declare themselves religiously observant are exempt from military service. Rates of exemption are higher among the lower classes who tend to be more religious and have more traditional views about gender roles that are opposed to women’s participation in mixed-gender settings.

4. A “communa” is a social form of organization, reminiscent of an extended family, characterized by the sharing of possessions and responsibilities between people who are not necessarily related to each other by blood. It is colloquially used to refer to a group of peers who feel emotionally close to each other and engage in many joint activities.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Hadassah-Brandeis Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Shira Offer

Shira Offer is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar Ilan University, Israel. She received her PhD in Sociology from the Universityof Chicago. Her research focuses on personal networks, social support and reciprocity, time use and family dynamics, and work and family. Her work appears in various journals, including the American Sociological Review, Journal of Marriage and Family, Social Forces,Social Science Research, and Gender & Society. For more information and downloads visit https://biu.academia.edu/ShiraOffer.