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Transitions to motherhood: young women’s desire for respectability, responsibility and moral worth

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
    SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Abstract

In the UK, teenage motherhood is depicted in the media and government policy as highly negative and problematic. Pregnant and mothering young women are constructed as socially excluded members of society who belong to an assumed underclass who lack responsibility and respectability. This article draws on the views and perspectives of pregnant and mothering young women in the east of England to examine how positive and successful subjects are defined and understood. It is illustrated how this group of working class young women negotiated and resisted their positioning as 'unfit' mothers and 'bad' citizens. Central to their narratives was a desire to reassert themselves as respectable and responsible individuals through engaging in education and employment in order to achieve financial independence. It is argued that this notion of respectability provides a limited and limiting understanding of inclusion and moral worth for working class young women.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 1071-1085

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Journal of Youth Studies (Volume 23, Issue 8)

Publication milestones

  • Accepted/In press - 03/08/2019
  • Published - 17/08/2019

Publication status

Published - 17/08/2019

ISSN

1367-6261

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/625245
  • Scopus: 85071049944

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