A debate on Teenage Pregnancy was held at the Women’s Library in London on Thursday 29th April, 2010. It was attended by over 40 people - mainly feminist activists such as care and social workers, and some academics and students.
The panellists were:
1. Miriam David as chair made opening comments, drawing on 40 years of history of the women’s movement, 10 years of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy and the work she did with Pam Alldred that was published as Get Real About Sex: the politics and practice of sex education.
2. Dr Ofra Koffman drew on her doctoral research at Goldsmiths about moves from unwed mothers to teenage pregnancy to reflect on teenage motherhood in the context of 40 years to Women’s Liberation Movement.
3. Professor Simon Duncan offered a critique of current UK policy discourse, drawing on his work with Ros Edwards and Claire Alexander in their recently published edited book, Teenage Parenthood: What’s the Problem?, showing how teenage parenthood is not necessarily a problem from the point of view of the women involved.
4. Dr Lesley Hoggart, formerly of the PSI and now at Greenwich, having done work on teenage mums and experiences of abortion, gave a feminist perspective, seeing teen motherhood as an issue for feminist concern given the stigmatising approaches for such young women.
5. Kate Bell from Gingerbread, a campaigning group for lone mothers (or single parents) and who work with these women in very socially deprived communities, also argued that we need to tackle the stigma and social deprivation of these women, and support them to make choices.
Thus, the overall and overarching conclusion was that feminists need to argue for women’s and girls’ right to choose in relation motherhood and abortion. But we also need to work to change the contexts of choice away from neo-liberalism and towards making education and social services far more supportive rather than punitive, including moves away from seeing this as simply a problem of those who are NEET (Not in Education Employment and Training).
Report by Miriam David, Institute of Education
There’s a seminar on Pregnancy and pregnancy planning in the new parenting culture. Participants who will discuss their ideas include: Pat O’Brien, Consultant & Honorary Senior Lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University College Hospital London and spokesperson, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; Elizabeth Mitchell Armstrong, Associate Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton University; Professor Kristin Luker, Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley; Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology, University of Kent; Tina Miller, Reader in Sociology, Oxford Brookes University; Jonathan Ives, Lecturer in Behavioural Science and Heather; Draper, Reader in Biomedical Ethics, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, University of Birmingham; Rachel Jones, Senior Research Associate, Guttmacher Institute, New York;Evelyn Mahon, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin; Martin Richards, Emeritus Professor of Family Research, Cambridge University; and Julie McCandless, Lecturer in Law, Oxford Brookes University.
See; http://www.parentingculturestudies.org/seminar-series/seminar5/index.html