Persistent stigma despite social change: experiences of stigma among single women who were pregnant or mothers in the Republic of Ireland 1996–2010

Abstract

‘Single’ women continue to experience stigma during pregnancy and mothering in the Republic of Ireland. This article explores the experiences of stigma of single women who were pregnant and mothering in Ireland between 1996 and 2010. The biographic narrative interpretive method (BNIM) was used to elicit biographical narratives. Analysis on both the lived experience of the women and the social context of the time created a ‘situated subjectivity’ in a sociocultural context. This article argues that despite large-scale positive social change before and during this period, single women’s pregnancy and motherhood continued to be to be stigmatised in Ireland. Women experienced this stigma in their everyday interactions. They negotiated stigma in their personal and social lives, employing strategies that drew on material and symbolic resources available to them. Social class, ethnicity and time were among factors that mediate the experience, but can also intersected in particular social locations to create a more stigmatised identity.