Disability and Family Relationships: Mothers’ Oblativity

Abstract

This article examines the condition of mothers and family caregivers of persons with disabilities in Italy, analysing the cultural, political, and economic dimensions that sustain their invisibility and social exclusion. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in Western Sicily through thirty semi-structured interviews, the study highlights how care – traditionally represented as a “female vocation” – is experienced as an oblative posture: a structural disposition of self-offering that goes far beyond notions of selflessness. Rather than referring simply to individual selflessness or altruism, oblativity captures a socially structured process of self-estrangement, in which women progressively renounce autonomy, professional aspirations, and personal identity. The findings show how neoliberal familism and inadequate welfare policies transform care into a “totalising gift,” legitimising the expropriation of women’s lives in the name of their dependent relatives. This cultural and institutional framework reinforces patriarchal expectations of sacrifice, producing biographical discontinuities, emotional depletion, and exclusion from social and economic participation. The article argues for a shift from private, gendered oblativity to collective and co-responsible care, conceived as a public good and supported by redistributive justice. Only by recognising the socio-political value of care work, beyond the rhetoric of natural vocation, can inclusive welfare systems ensure dignity and equality for both caregivers and care recipients.