Multiple selves

Abstract

Abstract The paper presents findings from narrative analyses of interviews with 16 Gujarati women caring for a child with an intellectual disability in a midsized city in India. Participants’ mothering narratives articulate the multiple selves (or identities) they have constructed in the context of their child’s disability. In efforts to align with the cultural discourse on good mothering, women in this study sometimes narrate themselves as knowledge bearers and as agents, as people who labor and triumph over difficult circumstances, but at other times vulnerable and victimized as they navigate both their daily responsibilities and the social expectations and discourses regarding mothering. The identity narratives educate the audience of what mothering a child with an intellectual disability means in this unique sociocultural context.