Mumpreneur, Identified!: Digital Social Practices and the Networking Capacity of Stay-at-Home Mothers

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-573-7_11How to use a DOI?

Keywords

motherhood identity; neoliberal SAHM; mumpreneur; networking capacity; digital entrepreneurship; Instagram

Abstract

This article aims to explore the experiences of stay-at-home mothers (SAHMs), which are shaped by their engagement with social media and intensive parenting practices that support women’s career through the performance of the “mumpreneur” identity. This performance is grounded in theoretical assumptions about the plural and dynamic construction of motherhood identity, as well as empowerment-oriented digital literacy. Using data from informal interviews with millennial first-time mothers, this study describes SAHMs’ digital social practices, particularly their strategic use of Instagram to build home-based entrepreneurial ventures and craft their maternal personas on social media. The findings reveal that millennial mothers undergo a transitional phase marked by identity dilemmas as they navigate new domestic routines and the desire to engage in economically productive work. During this transition, their digital proficiency—especially their engagement with Instagram—gradually transforms the traditional maternal role into a digital social practice aligned with professional standards and achievement goals comparable to having a career. In conclusion, Instagram serves as a strategic tool for SAHMs to seek information, generate knowledge, and enhance their networking capacity, which in turn reshapes intensive parenting practices and constructs a new narrative that reconfigures the image of the “good mother” into that of the “productive mother” through entrepreneurial activity. Finally this article suggests new insights into digital motherhood, platformed entrepreneurship, and identity performance in a non‑Western post‑colonial context.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Rony Agustino Siahaan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/30
TI  - Mumpreneur, Identified!: Digital Social Practices and the Networking Capacity of Stay-at-Home Mothers
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Communication and New Media Studies (COMNEWS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 99
EP  - 107
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-573-7_11
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-573-7_11
ID  - Siahaan2026
ER  -