Middle-aged Women and Intergenerational Aspirations in Dehradun, India: Mobility as Social Achievement During Post-active Motherhood

Abstract

Post-active motherhood can be a period of flourishing for many women. Aspirations for social achievement beyond the domestic sphere become imaginable or realisable as women are released from the more intensive work of raising children. This article examines this period of life for a cohort of women in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. After years of social service and political activities, these women seek social advancement through the formal status as municipal councillor for their ward. Such projects are frustrated, unachievable due to not having the right type of capital, resulting in mobility in imagination, immobility in fact. In revealing how such projects are frustrated, I draw attention to the constrained mobility of women in post-active motherhood as a feminist and social issue.

Keywords:

• Middle Age
• Post-active Motherhood
• Intergenerational Mobility
• Aspirations
• India
• Women and Politics

Acknowledgements

The research was conducted in partnership with Panchayati Raj and Gender Awareness Training Institute, Dehradun, India. My thanks to all at PRAGATI, and to the women parshads and party workers who generously allowed me to participate in their activities. This article was significantly improved through the feedback provided by the participants of the workshop organised by Hannah Bulloch. I thank them, and particularly Hannah for her work in organising such a productive space, and for her own meticulous comments. Thanks also to the useful comments of two anonymous reviewers and Diana Glazebrook’s copyediting. Any remaining errors are my own.

Notes

1 By empower I mean the expansion of the possibilities for personhood (Jakimow 2018).

2 Support from female in-laws was more likely in families seeking social mobility through politics, usually through the political aspirations of men but at times also of female family members due to reservations.

3 This workshop was run by the author and PRAGATI, the author's NGO partners, and was funded by the Australian High Commission in New Delhi. The workshop provided a space for women to think about their decision, and to learn the myriad rules and regulations to contest elections. It was also a space where women discussed their shared frustrations with the party ticket selection.

4 No seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Dehradun itself, although they are reserved across the state, particularly in panchayats.

5 Such conditions for women politicians are not restricted to India. Examples abound, including the treatment received by Julia Gillard, Australia’s first female prime minister. 

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council: [Grant Number FT190100247]; UNSW Faculty Arts and Social Sciences.