w longer being classified as teens (Luker 8). The image of the unwed mother is commonly attached to teenagers, though this assumption proves to be untrue. Two-thirds of America’s unwed mothers are not teenagers, and one-fourth are actually “no longer wed” mothers: women who were once married but are not by the birth of their baby (Luker 8). African Americans are also believed to have the largest population of teenage mothers, though this assumption is false. Despite the disproportionate share of births to African American teenagers and unmarried women (African Americans compose only 15% of the population but account for more than a third of all teen mothers), over 57 percent of all babies born to unmarried teens in 1990 were born to whites. And since 1985, birthrates among unmarried white teens have been increasing rapidly while those of unmarried black teens remain largely stable (Luker 7).After careful analysis of the facts surrounding the issue of teenage pregnancy, Luker believes that, “It would be better to see early childbearing as a symptom like infant mortality- not a cause but a marker of events, an indicator of the extent to which many young people have been excluded from the American Dream” (Luker 182). In saying this, she makes the point that the rate of early childbearing, like the rate of infant mortality, can be seen as having a direct relationship to the number of poor, minorities, and others who have been failed by the nation’s major institutions. Luker believes that it is not pregnancy that causes teens to become poor but rather poverty that causes teens to become pregnant. Early childbearing seems to be a constrained choice for poor people, those “excluded from the American Dream” who face few other options (Luker 183).By gathering information pertaining to the issue of teenage pregnancy, Kristin Luker has played a significant role in the negotiated order of the ...
