They become pregnant to get welfare assistance. Prejudices surrounding pregnancy among young, por women in contemporary Argentina

MALVINA SILBA

Pensilvania

Conferencia; Conferencista invitada al College of Liberal Arts, Latin American Studies Program.; 2021

Department of Sociology, Temple University.

Motherhood is usually represented in different ways in many social discourses. The mass media and social networks are two spaces where positive representations circulate but also stereotypes and stigmas about certain types of people and teenage mothers represent a permanent focus of mockery and discredit.In Argentina in recent years, different jokes have begun to proliferate about some types of mothers, mainly teenagers and young women, from the working classes and beneficiaries of social assistance. This paper aims to reflect on the construction of such stereotypes, the gender mandates behind them and the contrast with statistical data showing the distribution of the Universal Child Allowance according to the number of children per family group. Finally, we propose to cross-check all this information with theoretical questions and proposals regarding the maternal and paternal contract as a way of contributing to the elaboration of future public policies.