Hustling over the life course : reconciling cultural norms and socio-economic realities for young mothers in Nairobi, Kenya
Kim, Seung Wan (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Sociologia)
Stoebenau, Kirsten (University of Maryland)
Omuya, Milka (African Population and Health Research Center)
Muthoni, Ann (African Population and Health Research Center)
Musyoki, Raphael (African Population and Health Research Center)
Nyambura, Rukia (African Population and Health Research Center)
Ambula, Victor (African Population and Health Research Center)
Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics

Fecha:	2025
Resumen:	This paper draws on qualitative interviews with 50 mothers and 31 fathers from the Jamaa na Afya ya Mtoto (JAMO) project to examine the role of "hustling" in romantic relationships and motherhood in low-income communities in Nairobi, Kenya. Using a life-course lens and grounded in the "doing gender" framework, we explore how young mothers engage in hustling to pursue socially recognized adulthood. Thematic analysis reveals two key forms: hustling in motherhood-balancing caregiving with income generation-and hustling in marriage-legitimizing unions through bridewealth involvement and endurance. In a context of economic precarity and limited institutional support, hustling becomes not only a survival strategy but also a gendered practice through which adulthood is performed, reinforced, and at times subtly contested. This study highlights how young adults navigate fragmented life-course trajectories amid shifting gender expectations and material conditions, ultimately reshaping emerging norms around gender, work, and family in low-income urban settings in Africa.
Nota:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Nota:	Altres ajuts: Eunice K. Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development R01HD20094536; Maryland Population Research Center P2C- HD041041
Derechos:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Lengua:	Anglès
Documento:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Materia:	Hustling ; Gender ; Mothers ; Low Income ; Urban ; Kenya
Publicado en:	Advances in Life Course Research, Vol. 65 (september 2025) , p. 100691, ISSN 1879-6974

DOI: 10.1016/j.alcr.2025.100691

8 p, 1.3 MB

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Documentos de investigación > Documentos de los grupos de investigación de la UAB > Centros y grupos de investigación (producción científica) > Ciencias sociales y jurídicas > Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics (CED-CERCA)
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