Risk rituals and the female life-course: negotiating uncertainty in the transitions to womanhood and motherhood

Abstract

This article argues that key points in the female life-course – specifically, the transition into independent adulthood and motherhood – have come to be characterised by risk. The discussion is anchored in two case studies: the first concerns female undergraduate students’ strategies for managing the risks associated with socialising, and the second deals with the depiction of pregnancy-related health issues in British newspapers. Across both, discussion focuses on the protective and self-limiting routines that have become a distinctive feature of women’s lives. This article approaches these as ‘risk rituals’ and works towards a refinement of this concept. First, by suggesting that this concept should pay greater attention to the critical question of who is being asked to take responsibility for a risk. Secondly, by suggesting that ‘risk rituals’ might on occasion serve to mark and manage life-course transitions. The article’s conclusion seeks to explain why risk rituals might serve this function. Developing out of conditions of detraditionalisation and individualisation, risk rituals are nonetheless socially-patterned, rather than universal. They are, for example, a particular feature of the female life-course, and in making this argument the article points out the connections between practices of risk-avoidance on the one hand, and social constraints associated with gender on the other. In making this case, the article seeks to provide a fresh perspective on risk and the life-course, as well as contribute to the emerging ‘risk rituals’ literature and work on gender and risk.

Keywords:

• Risk rituals
• life
• course
• gender
• motherhood
• uncertainty
• responsibility

Acknowledgements

The study of undergraduate students’ experiences of socialising, alcohol consumption, and drink-spiking was funded by a British Academy Small Grant (PI: Adam Burgess). The research on pregnancy-related health issues was supported by Sense About Science. I gratefully acknowledge each of these sources of support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Other search terms trialled included ‘warn’, ‘risk’, and ‘harm’, but these failed to capture all relevant items.

2. The count for this was per newspaper article, per factor discussed. In other words, repeated mentions in a single news item of a practice being ‘daily’ or ‘weekly’ weren’t included in the count.

3. These are events organised by universities to introduce undergraduates to the social side of university life.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the British Academy and Sense about Science