At the intersection of idealized youth and marginalized almost-adulthood: how girls negotiate young motherhood in London, Ontario

TY - JOUR

T1 - At the intersection of idealized youth and marginalized almost-adulthood

T2 - how girls negotiate young motherhood in London, Ontario

AU - Hamilton, Patricia

AU - Lawson, Erica

AU - Gaudet, Crystal

AU - Chisholm, Jennifer

AU - Kaur, Jaspreet

AU - Abercromby, Susan

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by funding from the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) [grant number R4563A03]. Publisher Copyright: © 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2018/10/21

Y1 - 2018/10/21

N2 - This article discusses how young mothers in London, a mid-size city in Canada, utilize a drop-in centre service while attending an alternative programme to acquire secondary school credits. The central arguments made here are informed by key concepts in the field of girlhood studies. With its attention to the interconnections between gender, age, and generation as well as other aspects of social identity, girlhood studies provides crucial insight into the lived experiences of young mothers who straddle the space between girlhood and adulthood. We interpret the experiences of the young mothers who participated in this study in light of shifting meanings and expectations of girls and girlhood in the neoliberal era. Drawing on the concept of the ideal neoliberal girl subject embodied in the ‘can do’ and ‘at risk’ girl, this paper highlights the tensions in accessing a drop-in centre, which functions as both a site of security and surveillance, for a group of young mothers receiving social services. The findings revealed how girls who are mothers struggle to live in the present to assert a legitimate maternal identity even as they are prepared for the future through neoliberal public policies and other disciplinary practices.

AB - This article discusses how young mothers in London, a mid-size city in Canada, utilize a drop-in centre service while attending an alternative programme to acquire secondary school credits. The central arguments made here are informed by key concepts in the field of girlhood studies. With its attention to the interconnections between gender, age, and generation as well as other aspects of social identity, girlhood studies provides crucial insight into the lived experiences of young mothers who straddle the space between girlhood and adulthood. We interpret the experiences of the young mothers who participated in this study in light of shifting meanings and expectations of girls and girlhood in the neoliberal era. Drawing on the concept of the ideal neoliberal girl subject embodied in the ‘can do’ and ‘at risk’ girl, this paper highlights the tensions in accessing a drop-in centre, which functions as both a site of security and surveillance, for a group of young mothers receiving social services. The findings revealed how girls who are mothers struggle to live in the present to assert a legitimate maternal identity even as they are prepared for the future through neoliberal public policies and other disciplinary practices.

KW - drop-in centres

KW - girlhood

KW - girlhood studies

KW - maternal subjectivity

KW - Young mothers

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044031569&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/13676261.2018.1451628

DO - 10.1080/13676261.2018.1451628

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85044031569

SN - 1367-6261

VL - 21

SP - 1182

EP - 1197

JO - Journal of Youth Studies

JF - Journal of Youth Studies

IS - 9

ER -