Teenage motherhood and the regulation of mothering in the scientific literature: the South African example

Macleod, Catriona I

Title: Teenage motherhood and the regulation of mothering in the scientific literature: the South African example
Creator: Macleod, Catriona I
Date: 2001
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6256
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007874
Description: The mainstream literature on teenage pregnancy highlights teenagers' inadequate mothering as an area of disquiet. `Revisionists', such as feminist critics, point out that a confluence of negative social factors is implicated in teenagers' mothering abilities. Whether arguing that teenagers make bad mothers or defending them against this, the literature relies on the `invention of "good" mothering'. In this article I highlight the taken-for-granted assumptions concerning mothering (mothering as an essentialized dyad; mothering as a skill; motherhood as a pathway to adulthood; fathering as the absent trace) appearing in the scientific literature on teenage pregnancy in South Africa. I indicate how these assumptions are implicated in the regulation of mothering through the positioning of the teenage mother as the pathologized other, the splitting of the public from the private, domestic space of mothering, and the legitimation of the professionalization of mothering. I explore the gendered implications of the representations of mothering in this literature.
Format: 31 pages, pdf
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Language: English
Relation: Macleod, C. (2001) Teenage motherhood and the regulation of mothering in the scientific literature: the South African example. Feminism & Psychology, 11 (4). pp. 493-511. ISSN 0959-3535. http://fap.sagepub.com/content/11/4/493.short

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Gender Action Forum (GENACT)

SDG 05. Gender Equality

RU Department of Psychology

Macleod, Catriona Ida (Distinguished Professor)

SDG 03. Good Health and Well-Being

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