Experience of unplanned maternity: Case studies of two young single mothers in Belgrade

Abstract

The paper is based on the analysis of narratives from the case studies of two young single mothers from the longitudinal qualitative research in Belgrade. The aims of the paper are exploration and interpretation of the positioning and meaning of motherhood within social biographies of the working-class single mothers. The intention is to study experience of single motherhood among young women with lower social-economic status by exploring how it is contextualised within structural, normative and institutional frameworks, as well as within relational and biographical contexts. The analysis proved the assumption that, although the position of motherhood within their life courses is similar, its meaning within their social biographies is different due to their different experience and subjectivities. In the concluding discussion, I argue for taking into account feelings as part of maternal experience, as well as to interpret agency as embedded in relational and biographical contexts within a young woman’s social biography.