Stigma, intersectionality and motherhood: Exploring the relations of stigma in the accounts of black teenage mothers ‘looked after’ by the State

Abstract

This article explores the accounts of pregnancy and motherhood among teenage black women looked after by the State in Britain. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 young women aged 16–19, who were from black minority ethnic groups and were or had been in care. The article draws on both work on the social structural dimensions of stigma and work on intersectionality that address the experience of those located at intersecting axes of disadvantage. Stigma and intersectionality were distinctive aspects of the women’s stories. Their experiences of becoming mothers early in their reproductive career and their subsequent transformation differed from their counterparts, in the influence of stigma and the acknowledgement of race, class and gender subordination as interlocking forms of oppression.