Age and partnership as public symbols - Stigma and non-marital motherhood in an Irish context

Recently emerging discourses on non-marital motherhood in the Republic of I reland indicate that the most problematized of non-marital mothers are youn ger women, without partners, and those who are state dependent. This articl e reports on a qualitative analysis of interview data obtained from 51 unma rried pregnant women selected from a Dublin maternity hospital regarding th eir experiences in negotiating encounters in public places. Data suggest th at normative rules of conduct about the social organization of reproduction rooted in dominant discourses mediated women's experiences in their everyd ay interactions. The analysis draws on Goffman's theory of stigma;and argue s that the way in which childbearing is framed in public discourses, as evi denced in media reports, is reflected in the way in which participants perc eived their own situations, with overriding concerns centring on age and ma le association in reproductive relations.