Singular life stories, shared experiences: single mothers in Brazil, France and Japan from the point of view of race/ethnicity/nationality, class and age

Abstract

This article investigates the “moral career” of three single mothers that are part of the ethnic and racial minority – an object of stigma – in Brazil, France and Japan. Kika, a 55 year-old Brazilian, is a resident of the outskirts of São Paulo; Samantha, a French woman of 42, is originally from Martinique; and Rosa, 47, a Philippino immigrant in Japan. Although living in contrasting societies from the socioeconomic and cultural viewpoints, we may identify more similarities than differences in the formation of the social identity of these women, who share experiences of discrimination based on class, gender and race/ethnicity/nationality, obstacles to their access to steady employment and whose consequence is poverty, which becomes worse with advancing age.