This paper has arisen from a concern that much recent policy-related research on markets displays misogynistic tendencies. In both the media and academic accounts it would appear as though the blame for social and educational inequalities can now be laid at the door of women--particularly middle-class mothers. Through examining competing…

The in-depth interview data from low-income and working-class African American mothers is used to describe how they engage in the educational marketplace and construct their school choices. Their stories reveal that their positionality-race, class and gender factors-powerfully influences their educational decision-making.

Parents, peers, teachers, counselors, and siblings all exert an influence on the educational and occupational decisions made by students. Of all these of persons, however, parents have the greatest influence. Mothers are the major influence on their daughters' career aspirations and choice, whereas fathers are the primary influence on their sons'…

Explores, from a feminist perspective, the discourses of choice regarding how women make their choices as consumers in the education marketplace. It argues that mothers as parents are not free to choose but act within a range of constraints, i.e., their choices are limited by structural and moral possibilities in a patriarchal and racist society.…