New Labour, social exclusion and educational risk management: The case of 'gymslip mums'

Abstract

This article considers New Labour's education and social exclusion policies in the light of Giddens's exposition of Third Way welfare reform. It focuses on the teenage mother policy trajectory, treating it as a case study of the gender politics of both the Third Way and of Anthony Giddens - a key Labour Government organic intellectual. The article examines how New Labour understands the risks of teenage pregnancy and motherhood and how its teenage mother policy functions as risk management in the context of redefined social justice policies. It identifies some dilemmas that arise for this policy as a result of the top-down, masculinist and moralistic orientations that surround and influence ..