Black mothering, paid work and identity

Recent figures suggest that in Britain today, 77.3% of black women are enga ged in full-time paid work, a figure which has remained fairly consistent s ince the introduction of statistical data assessing the work activity of Af rican-Caribbean women from post-war years (CRE 1997). The study addresses t he extent to which black women's high work rate derives from a combination of historical cultural and structural economic factors. Historical and cult ural, because the experiences of slavery, colonialism and economic migratio n have had a direct impact on black women's relationship to full-time paid work today in contemporary Britain. In addition, structural economic factor s such as high rates of unemployment for black men and lower rates of pay f or black men and women compared to their white male and female counterparts , actively encourage a high proportion of black women towards full-time pai d work in order to make up for this economic shortfall. A primary consequen ce of these inter-locking factors is that full-time paid work becomes centr al to black women's mothering and black mothers' work status is part of the ir everyday family experience.