Redefining Motherhood: How Formerly Incarcerated Black Mothers Frame Mothering Choices

• Author: Erica Banks
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/15570851221098374
• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Date: 01 October 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Feminist Criminology

2022, Vol. 17(4) 450–470

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/15570851221098374

journals.sagepub.com/home/fcx

Redefining Motherhood: How

Formerly Incarcerated Black

Mothers Frame Mothering

Choices

Erica Banks

1



Abstract

Black mothers have never fit the hegemonic white standard of motherhood. The bad

mother narrative has been superimposed on Black women through controlling images.

Through in-depth interviews with formerly incarcerated Black mothers, I demonstrate

how formerly incarcerated Black women invert controlling images through how they

frame their mothering choices. Their reframing of their mothering choices reveals that

formerly incarcerated Black mothers have mothering practices that entail good

mothering and goes beyond the white imaginary. These mothering practices reveal a

redefinition of motherhood that provides greater understanding of how formerly

incarcerated Black mothers understand and make sense of their mothering choices.

Keywords

women, women’s reentry, formerly incarcerated mothers- reunification with children,

qualitative research, race, intersections of race/class/gender, prisoner reentry

Introduction

The incarceration rate for women has increased dramatically since 1980. Among

incarcerated women, Black women are disproportionately represented in comparison

1

Department of Sociology, Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Erica Banks, Department of Sociology, Smith College, Wright Hall 225, Northampton, MA 01063-0001,

USA.

Email: ebanks@smith.edu

with white and Latinx women. Furthermore, over 60% of incarcerated women are

mothers to minor children (The Sentencing Project, 2020). Given that incarceration

serves as a societal indicator of being an unfit or bad mother, women exiting the

criminal legal system must contend with being unable to attain the glorified status of

mother. Even so, historically, Black mothers have not embodied traditional white

hegemonic notions of motherhood. The inability of Black mothers to embody tradi-

tional notions of motherhood are due to controlling images, which are images and

caricatures that negatively portray Black women (Collins, 2000). Controlling images of

Black women are built upon longstanding norms and beliefs about race and gender that

position Black people (as well as other people of color) and women as being inferior to

their white and male counterparts. Therefore, the overrepresentation of Black women

among currently and formerly incarcerated women then confirms and reinforces these

controlling images.

Research on formerly incarcerated Black women specifically is still emerging.

However, we know that the experiences of Black women in the criminal legal system

are a result of intersecting forms of marginalization by gender and race. Moreover,

many challenges they face after incarceration such as resuming their roles as mothers

cannot be disconnected from historical narratives that devalue Black women and Black

motherhood (Garcia, 2016;Garcia-Hallett, 2019;Gurusami, 2019;Richie, 1996,2012;

Roberts, 1997). Moreover, contrary to the dominant controlling images of motherly

fitness, formerly incarcerated Black mothers actively engage in mothering strategies

that undermine and counter controlling images. (Gurusami, 2019). What is less ex-

plored are the kinds of mothering choices formerly incarcerated Black mothers make

before and after incarceration. Expanding upon this growing body of literature, I

examine how formerly incarcerated Black women interpret and rationalize their un-

conventional mothering choices. In doing so, I answer the call made by Garcia (2016)

to transcend societal perceptions and social constructions of motherhood in future

research examining the experiences of formerly incarcerated mothers. I argue formerly

incarcerated Black women reframe how they think about their mothering choices, and

in doing so, they demonstrate the need for us to move beyond conventional ideals of

what it means to be a good mother.

Literature Review

American Constructions of Motherhood. American constructions of motherhood are

rooted in white hegemonic logics dating back to the Victorian era. It was during this

period in which the ideology of True Womanhood emerged. The defining charac-

teristics of the True Woman included purity,chastity, and submissiveness (Ladd-Taylor

& Umansky, 1998;Roberts, 1997). The onset of the Industrial Revolution further

intensified this notion of True Womanhood, and the perfect woman became synon-

ymous with being the perfect wife and mother (Davis, 1981). The elevation of the True

Womanhood ideology intensified as manufacturing moved from the home to factories

(Davis, 1981). Prior to the Industrial Revolution, both working class women and men

Banks 451