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Acts of resistance: The transformation of young single mothers in Hong Kong

International Social Work: Exploring and promoting comparative and international Social Work in A Global Age

Published online on

Abstract

Young single mothers are positioned as bad mothers in the dominant cultural and societal idealized narratives of motherhood in Hong Kong. This article draws from qualitative interview data of 20 young single mothers in Hong Kong who decided to keep their babies for lone motherhood, explicating the transformations they experienced in such decisions, and how their being positioned (or how they positioned themselves) as ‘bad’ mothers became their acts of resistance to the prevailing dominant images of motherhood. The findings also shed light on the important role in helping professionals collaboratively construct the ‘mother’ identity in order to prevent further subjugation.