Agency of young mothers and reproductive governance: A perspective from vulnerable neighborhoods of Buenos Aires

Abstract

Drawing on an ethnographic study of a state-run socio-educational program aimed at supporting young mothers enrolled in secondary school in two low-income neighborhoods of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, this article examines the reproductive governance embedded in this public policy and the local forms of agency developed by the young mothers who participate in it. Tracking the policy’s implementation practices in the field revealed tensions among the conceptions of family, motherhood, and youth that circulate across the different layers of the Program, giving rise to diverse moral regimes surrounding young motherhood in which practices of control and care are intertwined. Sharing the young women’s everyday lives—in institutional settings, in their homes, and in neighborhood spaces of sociability—made it possible to access the meanings and experiences they construct, thereby incorporating their standpoint into the analysis of the policy. The article describes the tensions between the moralities operating across the Program’s multiple layers and the strategies developed by its beneficiaries. Building on this, it offers a critical reading of how agendas around sexual and reproductive rights are configured, often overlooking the multiple identity markers that shape these young mothers’ trajectories. Drawing on critical feminist contributions, the article questions whether the young women are indeed recognized as legitimate subjects of these rights, given the persistent disqualification or translation of their experiences into frameworks that are alien to their own demands.