Teenage Motherhood and the Regulation of Mothering in the Scientific Literature: The South African Example

Abstract

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.

Youth or disadvantage? The construction of teenage mothers in medical journals

“…In the literature on teenage pregnancy in South Africa, racial boundaries were also naturalised and used to understand White reproductive patterns as normative compared to the reproductive behaviour of Black people, which required 'explanation, investigation and intervention' (Macleod and Durrheim 2002, 781). In the USA, concern with early childbearing centres on welfare dependency (Macleod 2001) and concerns with teenage sexuality, particularly among minority group members (Limbert and Bullock 2005). Recent attention to teenage pregnancy in the UK is related to 'social exclusion', where a lack of education, training and paid employment is understood to limit access to appropriate social roles and to undermine the production of rational economic citizens (Duncan 2007;Kidger 2004).…”

Responsible Teenage Fatherhood in a South African Historically Disadvantaged Community

“…Considerable research has been done on teenage pregnancy in South Africa (Macleod, 2001;Makiwane, Desmond, Richter & Udjo, 2006), but most of it has focused only on teenage mothers (e.g., Mkhwanazi, 2010;Panday, Makiwane, Ranchod, & Letsoalo, 2009) In this article, the focus is on teenage fathers, an area that has often been neglected by the existing mainstream literature (Hendricks, Swartz, & Bhana, 2010;Swartz & Bhana, 2009). Teenage fathers are often portrayed as unsupportive, neglectful and unable to provide for or abandon their children (Speak, 2006).…”

South African teachers' responses to teenage pregnancy and teenage mothers in schools

“…Allowing pregnant teenagers to remain in school and to return after giving birth is considered to be significant not only in delaying a second birth, but also in offering young women increased opportunities to get an education and increase their economic standing (Grant and Hallman 2006). Continued enrollment in school correlates positively with increased economic productivity, higher earnings and improved social and health outcomes (Kaufman, de Wet, and Stadler 2001;Macleod 2001).…”