ABSTRACT
Feminism is as much about individuation (Jung’s term for ‘becoming oneself as distinct from others’) as it is about a collective effort with other females. Particularly, mothers and daughters regard each other sceptically and often conflicts among feminist commentators are often generational, reflecting this designation metaphorically. This chapter discusses two aspects of feminism: first, what mothers’ expectations were of their daughters; and, second, how did they communicate to their daughters what they thought a female should be. It elicits stories of mothers’ reactions of crucial moments in their daughters’ lives. Carolyn Steedman recounts stories of specifically working-class mothers in her research. The stoical response to life speaks to the hardship working-class, or poverty-stricken, mothers grinding on through lives of oppression. It also provides, in some women’s minds, a kind of behavioural get out: a ‘rationalisation of oppression’.
