Girlhood Studies; Doris Kakuru and Grace B. Kyomuhendo (Web)
Proposals by: 17.06.2024
This special issue aims to foster an in-depth understanding of how young motherhood among girls below the age of 20 is experienced and researched and of the impact such research has on these girls‘ lives in different global contexts. Despite the international commitments to human rights and social justice such as the UN-Convention on the Rights of the Child, the legal and institutional frameworks in many parts of the world often disregard the rights of girls including the need to prevent pregnancy among adolescents and reduce pregnancy-related mortality when working towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals 3 (good health and wellbeing and 5 gender equality).
Pregnant girls and young mothers are either ignored in research and practice or are framed in negative and deficit ways. For example, adolescent girls and their babies face higher health risks; these girls have been described as more likely to have a mental health diagnosis (Sekharan et al. 2015), misuse substances, be precariously housed, or lack prenatal care (Fleming et al. 2013). Young motherhood has also been held responsible for contributing to the pervasion of gender inequities in education (Bhana et al. 2013). Many girls are pressured or forced to drop out of school, thus reducing their economic prospects and making them more likely to experience poverty. They are also more likely to enter into child marriage, and to experience domestic violence.
There is a dearth of scholarly literature that addresses pregnant and parenting girls from the perspective of their agency and strengths, while illuminating the structural barriers to their wellbeing. The editors welcome articles that question these oppressive and exclusionary frameworks of research and practice. Articles could include young mothers‘ first-person narratives about their capabilities as knowers, knowledge producers, and tellers of their stories. The editors invite scholars, researchers, activists, and practitioners to contribute their original research articles, theoretical explorations, case studies, and interdisciplinary analyses that focus on pregnant girls and young mothers aged under 20 to enrich the discourse in offering greater detail based on intensive research. They encourage submissions that delve into the various dimensions of this topic, including but not limited to the following issues: Continue reading