Motherhood with many children in Kazakhstan: combining work and care

Abstract

The article examines the phenomenon of motherhood with many children in modern Kazakhstan, which is studied from completely different theoretical and empirical positions by representatives of socio-humanitarian sciences — philosophy, demography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, etc. Modern studies state a wide variety of maternal practices and social perceptions of motherhood in different cultures. However, as a rule, the problematization of motherhood is carried out in essentialist terms related to the issues of fertility, marriage, mortality, and population reproduction. Researchers ignore such features of motherhood with many children as the subjective perception of the role of the mother, building relationships with relatives, with managers at work, the influence of place of residence, ethnicity, and the education of mothers. The purpose of this article is to present the ideas of motherhood from the point of view of mothers with many children themselves and the resources that allow them to combine the role of a mother and a worker. In particular, we will describe how educated urban Kazakh women and mothers with many children combine their professional employment and childcare. The scientific significance of the work lies in the problematization of the performance of the maternal role by women with many children and the possibilities of combining professional employment and motherhood with many children. The value of this study lies in the presentation of motherhood, taking into account the ethnicity, class and level of education of mothers with many children, as well as attention to the practice of combining motherhood with many children and professional employment.