- Title
- Adolescent pregnancy: A feminist issue
- Creator
- Macleod, Catriona I
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2014
- Type
- text
- Type
- book chapter
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434360
- Identifier
- vital:73051
- Identifier
- ISBN 978-1-4899-8025-0
- Identifier
- https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4899-8026-7_6
- Description
- Pregnancy and mothering are enduring and central concerns of feminism. DiQuinzo (1999) sums this up in stating that “mothering is both an important site at which the central concepts of feminist theory are elaborated and a site at which these concepts are challenged and reworked.” Stephens (2004) argues, ‘…reproduction and mothering are central to theories of patriarchy and women’s unequal position in Western society…Childbirth can paradoxically be seen as both a cause of women’s subordinate position in society and a means of empowerment.’ Yet, despite the pivotal nature of pregnancy and mothering in feminist literature, there has been surprisingly little direct engagement by feminists in the area of ‘adolescent pregnancy.’ The engagement that there has been is a whisper in relation to the plethora of public health, medical, and psychological writings on ‘adolescent pregnancy.’ The feminists who have engaged with ‘adolescent pregnancy’ have, from their initial engagement and to varying degrees, tried to undermine simple interpretations of ‘adolescent pregnancy’ as a social problem and to link micro- and macro-level gender relations to occurrence of, and responses to, ‘adolescent pregnancy.’ Thus, for example, in the 1980s, Chilman (1985) asserted, ‘Sexism particularly afflicts programs and policies for these young people [unmarried teenage parents] as well as the behaviors that lead up to their becoming unmarried parents.’ In the 1990s, Pillow (1997), using a combination of feminist and postmodern theory, argued that ‘teen research and policy interventions can be understood as entrenched in the dilemmas of modernism, resulting often in normative assumptions that reflect our paradoxical attitudes and practices concerning female sexuality.’ More recently, Wilson and Huntington (2005) observed ‘adolescent pregnancy’ at a time when rates of fertility among young women are decreasing in ‘Western’ societies is ‘underpinned by changing social and political imperatives regarding the role of women in these countries.’
- Format
- 16 pages, pdf
- Publisher
- Springer
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Macleod, C., 2014. Adolescent pregnancy: A feminist issue. International handbook of adolescent pregnancy: Medical, psychosocial, and public health responses, pp.129-145
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the SpringerLink Terms of Use Statement ( https://link.springer.com/termsandconditions)
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Collections
Gender Action Forum (GENACT)
RU Books and Book Chapters
Macleod, Catriona Ida (Distinguished Professor)
SDG 05. Gender Equality
RU Department of Psychology
RU DST/NRF SARChI for Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproductions Research (CSSR) Programme
SDG 03. Good Health and Well-Being
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Adolescent pregnancy.pdf | 701 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |