Price: $34.95
Page Count: 233
Publication Date: August 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77258-208-6
To be a young mother is almost by definition to be considered an “unfit” mother. Thus, it is not surprising that young Canadian, U.S. and Australian mothers are often scorned, stigmatized and monitored. This is a book about being young, being a mother, and grappling with what it means to inhabit these two complex social positions. This book critiques the dominant, negative construction of young motherhood. Contributors reject the notion that the “ideal” mother is a 30ish, white, middle-class, able-bodied, married, heterosexual woman situated in a nuclear family.
This collection privileges the insights and stories of a diverse array of young mothers such as; a young mother coerced into giving her child up for a adoption, a young queer mother who has been parenting a child borne by her trans partner and who is now pregnant herself and many more. The tales analyzed and recounted in the collection record experiences of pain and joy, frustration and success, struggle and resistance, oppression and empowerment. We invite readers to hear the all too often silenced stories of young mothers, to learn what prevents and what allows these mothers to lead lives of grit, determination, authenticity, and agency as they strive to lovingly care for themselves, their children, and in many cases, other young mothers.
Feminist Perspectives on Young Mothers and Young Mothering is a ground-breaking and insightful book that explores the unique experiences of young mothers as they navigate complex patriarchal social structures, ideologies of mothering, and challenging and diverse social locations and circumstances. This book provides invaluable insight into the multiple and varied ways that young mothers experience mothering based on intersections of gender, race, social class, and age. The authors effectively highlight the voices, experiences, and counter-narratives of young mothers who challenge stigmatizing generalizations about young mothers’ capabilities, underscoring the need for greater support and empowerment of young mothers and young mothering. The personal narratives of young mothers discussed in the chapters are significant, moving, and though-provoking. Academics, students, service providers, and the wider general public would benefit from reading this book as it provides a greater understanding of the experiences of young mothers and young mothering, which has been invisible for far too long.
-- Caroline McDonald-Harker, PhD, Sociologist and Associate Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta
This inspiring collection celebrates the powerful, textured, and poignant voices of real and fictional young mothers as they bravely share ways in which they both combat various forms of stigmatization and oppression, and seek to defy cultural constraints and expectations of motherhood. The stunningly moving tales of struggle and success, oppression and resistance, empowerment and agency offer a rich intersectional, empathetic, and profoundly nuanced understanding of young motherhood and, in turn, ways to potentially support the empowerment of young mothers and their children. A must-read for folks interested in family and motherhood studies, and those engaged with youth and young mothers.
-- Fiona Joy Green, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies. University of Winnipeg, Canada.
Introduction
Deborah Byrd, Joanne Minaker, and Andrea O’Reilly 9
Part I
Dominant Discourse on Young Moms and Young Mothering: Concerns and Consequences 33
Chapter One
Lost in the Paperwork:
Young Moms, Homelessness, and Bureaucracy Melinda Vandenbeld Giles 35
Chapter Two
Young Mothers and Modern Domestic Adoption: Choice or Reproductive Exploitation? Valerie Andrews 47
Chapter Three
Through the Lens:
Adolescent Mothers, Stigmatization, and the Media Jenni Sullivan 67
FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON YOUNG MOTHERS AND YOUNG MOTHERING
Chapter Four
Gimme (Age-Appropriate) Shelter:
Young Mothers’ Reflections on U.S. Supportive Housing Facilities for Low-Income Families with Children Deborah Byrd 83
Part II
Young Mothers’ Stories: Challenging the Dominant Discourse 103
Chapter Five
Teen Mom Forever Ever
Heather Jackson 105
Chapter Six
Early Motherhood:
A Turning Point in the Complex Lives of Young Mothers Karen Felstead 119
Chapter Seven
Single Teen Mothers on Welfare Share “The Missing Story of Ourselves” Vivyan Adair 135
Chapter Eight
Becoming “Yazzi”:
A Queer Story of Young Parenthood Johanna Lewis 151
6
CONTENTS
Part III: Counter-Narratives: Communicating for Change 167
Chapter Nine
“The Nurses Looked at Me As If I Had Two Heads— Because I Was So Young”: Mothering in Suburban Melbourne between the 1960s-1980s Miranda Francis 169
Chapter Ten
Reconceptualizing Vulnerability and Autonomy as
a Way to Shift Dominant Narratives about Young Mothers Erin Kuri 185
Chapter Eleven
Destabilizing Self-Destruction: For the Sake of Young M/others Sunahtah Jones 203
Chapter Twelve
Matrifocality, Maternal Empowerment, and Maternal Nurturance: Conceiving Empowered Young Motherhood in Miriam Toews’s Summer of My Amazing Luck
Andrea O’Reilly 207
Chapter Thirteen
Young Motherhood Lost and Found
Stephenie White 227
7
FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON YOUNG MOTHERS AND YOUNG MOTHERING
Afterword
Becoming and Unbecoming
Joanne Minaker 229
Notes on Contributors 231
Dr. Joanne Minaker is Associate Dean, Academic, in the Faculty of Arts and Science at MacEwan University. A sociologist, qualitative researcher, and ardent mother. Works include the book Youth, Crime and Society: Issues of Power and Justice (2009), co-authored with Bryan Hogeveen, Criminalized Mothers, Criminalized Mothering (2015), as well as numerous articles that call into question marginalizing processes that dehumanize groups.
Deborah Byrd is Professor of English and Women’s & Gender Studies at Lafayette College, where she teaches women writers, 19th-century British poetry, and a community-based learning course on single motherhood. Her publications focus on young and low-income single mothers; on feminist, maternal, and community engagement pedagogies; and on a variety 19th and 20th-century writers.
Andrea O’Reilly, PhD, is Professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at York University. O’Reilly is founder and director of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, and founder and publisher of Demeter Press. She editor/author of 21 books including Matricentric Feminism: Theory, Activism, and Practice (2016).
