Reflexões sobre as vivências da maternidade e identidade da mulher idosa

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze how motherhood impacts an elderly woman’s self-perception and life narrative, considering the social dynamics and their intersections with aging. To this end, a qualitative study was conducted, in which the Life History methodology was employed to guide the conduction of an unstructured individual interview with a woman over 60 years old, residing in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Data analysis was carried out through content analysis, according to historical-cultural psychology. At the end of the analytical process, two nuclei of meaning were identified. The first nucleus refers to the period prior to aging, marked by the simultaneous exercise of multiple social roles, as well as by pressures, expectations, and idealizations associated with motherhood and female identity. The second nucleus corresponds to the subsequent phase of the participant’s life, characterized by contextual changes and identity transformations, in which a new way of perceiving herself and of re-signifying past experiences emerges. The results indicate that, for the participant, motherhood is identity-forming, although she also recognizes other dimensions of her identity beyond the maternal role.