Room of her own: Remaking empty nest and creating herspaces in practices of Polish mothers whose children left home

Abstract

The tension between the traditional scenario, in which women fulfil themselves mainly as mothers, as well as the emancipatory approach to women’s roles reverberates more and more in Polish society. This conflict between various social expectations has a significant impact on women’s experience of picking up the role of a mother, as well as the intensification of identity ambivalence accompanying their departure from said role. This paper describes the stage in mothers’ lives when adult children move out of their family homes. As part of the [blinded for the review] project, the authors have analysed the stories told by 40 Polish women, whose adult children had moved out of the house, leaving behind a void. The moment of entering a new stage of motherhood and womanhood has been told in the context of a private place – their homes. To further highlight the experience of this moment by the women who participated in the study, the authors have conducted an analysis of their stories within the framework of Victor Turner’s liminality theory. In the case of the women, who participated in the study, the experience of liminality does not lead to a new status that would be socially recognisable. Only nine of them – according to the analysis carried out by the authors – experienced, among other things due to owning or changing their own space, the phase of aggregation, which is typical of becoming a woman in a new role – a mother of an adult child who left home. In contrast, their approach towards space and the practices of everyday life became a pointer showing them the way out of the role of mothers and let them change their status, which the sociologists lack a name for, as the authors argue.