Patricia Hill Collins Discussion Questions

Patricia Hill Collins "Shifting the Center: Race, Class, and Feminist Theorizing About Motherhood"(pg 638-652)

 Throughout this whole piece, one of the main points Hill Collins makes is that the denial of personal experience is central in the marginalization of the mothering experience. She believes that "gender inequality has long worked in tandem with racial domination and economic exploitation." With this in mind:

1) Based on Hill Collins piece, what complexities do you believe exist for women of color in general?

2) Feminism "has not been immune to the decontextualization of Western thought overall." This western type of thought is based on the archetypal, white, middle-class, nuclear family in which there is a separate male sphere and female sphere (pg 640). How could this potentially create an issue within Feminism for women of color? (what obstacles could women of color face in feminism?)

 

3) (pg 643) Hill Collins describes contradictory elements in regards to women's physical survival. "On the one hand, racial ethnic women's motherwork for individual and community survival has been essential...On the other hand, this work often extracts high cost for large number of women. there is a loss of individual autonomy..." What is more important? The woman's role in her community or her role as a mother individually? 

4) (pg 644) Why is it that women of color have such a struggle between motherhood and work? and what is it that propels her to "work like a man"? Do you think it is more of an internalized motivation or more socially constructed?

5) (pg 646) One of the dimensions that Hill Collins mentions as the reasons behind the struggle for maternal empowerment is the "pervasive efforts by the dominant group to control the children's minds." Do you agree with this? Is it possible that society is only exposing children to one way of thinking, which in turn invalidates the experience of women of color?