If Boys Are Missing From The Teenage Pregnancy Conversation, Prevention Will Fail

Traditional leaders, on the other hand, reflected on the social challenges confronting their community. However, when the discussion turned to prevention, sexual health, and responsibility, one group was noticeably missing: men and boys.

This absence reveals something deeper than attendance numbers. It highlights a fundamental gap in how we talk about teenage pregnancy in South Africa. Even though pregnancy involves two people, prevention efforts still treat it largely as a “girls’ issue”. Young girls and women are told to abstain, use contraception, and protect their future. While this messaging is not wrong, it unfairly places the responsibility on them more than it does on boys and men.

When pregnancy occurs, young girls are the ones who face the consequences. Many leave school, face stigma in their communities, and at clinics. Many carry the social and emotional burden of early motherhood. Boys, on the other hand, often continue their lives with little disruption. This imbalance is not accidental, as it reflects how our prevention systems are designed.

The existing teenage pregnancy model focuses heavily on girls’ behaviours and choices, encouraging them to delay sexual activity, use contraception, or remain in school. While these interventions are important, they leave a critical question unanswered: where are men and boys in these conversations?

During the capacity-building workshop in Tiyani village, it became clear that boys are rarely invited to discussions about reproductive responsibility, especially beyond financial support. Many clinics are perceived as spaces for mostly girls and women to seek contraception. Dominant messaging often frames pregnancy intervention as something girls must manage.

As a result, responsibility is placed on one side. This creates what we call the “hidden responsibility branch” in the tree of teenage pregnancy. At the top of the tree are the consequences we witness across many rural communities: school dropouts, stigma, mental health stress, and cycles of poverty. Here, girls are often blamed, shamed, and expected to carry the burden of these outcomes.

At the centre of the tree is the problem itself: teenage pregnancy and weak consent culture. However, beneath the surface are the roots that sustain the problem: gender inequality, poverty, silence in families about sexuality, and social norms that reward male dominance while expecting girls to manage pregnancy risks and responsibilities alone.

Within this system, responsibility becomes uneven. Young girls and women are not only met with the social expectation to prevent pregnancy, but also the negotiation of condom usage, as well as the responsibility of contraception. Boys, however, often face fewer social and institutional expectations and responsibilities. Clinics are widely perceived as spaces designed for girls, and discussions about contraception rarely frame condom use as a shared responsibility. Social and legal accountability systems for young fathers remain weak or inconsistently enforced.

Even more concerning are the masculinity norms that shape behaviour. In many communities, men and boys grow up with messaging that equates masculinity with risk-taking, sexual conquest, and silence around reproductive responsibility. Boys grow up receiving little guidance on what responsible fatherhood, consent, and contraception should look like. The result is a prevention framework that addresses only half of the problem.

This systemic gap is significant because teenage pregnancy is not simply an individual behavioural issue. Instead, it is a gendered social systems issue. When men and boys are absent or overlooked from prevention conversations, several things happen: responsibility becomes unequal, accountability disappears, and girls carry consequences alone on young girls and women alone.

Therefore, if South Africa wants to address or reduce teenage pregnancy rates, we must move beyond the idea that this is a girls’ behavioural problem. We must actively bring men and boys into the centre of the conversation. Similarly, it means creating youth spaces where men and boys can confidently talk about masculinity, consent, and responsibility. It means making sure that sexual and reproductive health services are welcoming and accessible to both men, boys, young girls, and women. It also means solidifying social accountability systems so that fatherhood responsibilities cannot simply be ignored.

Most importantly, it means changing the narrative: preventing teenage pregnancy cannot rely on the shoulders of girls. When girls carry the burden of prevention alone, they also carry the burden of failure. That failure often comes with life-changing consequences, such as dropping out of school, social stigma, and navigating motherhood without support. Pregnancy prevention must be a shared responsibility.

We all have an equal role to play in reshaping how we talk about pregnancy. Until we address the hidden branch of the teenage pregnancy tree, prevention efforts will continue to treat the symptoms rather than the system. And the consequences will continue to fall on girls.

Bio

Siyanda Magayana is a South African Gender-Based Violence (GBV) activist, columnist, and academic professional. She currently serves as an Advocacy Officer at the Soul City Institute. Previously, she was a Senior Officer at the Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Office within the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice at the University of the Free State (UFS) , based on the Qwaqwa Campus.

Her work and advocacy focus on a range of social justice issues, including:

Gender Equality: She frequently writes and speaks on the importance of shifting societal norms to combat gender-based violence and femicide.

LGBTQIA+ Rights: Magayana is a strong advocate for inclusivity, challenging gender-binary traditions and discrimination against gender-diverse people in institutions like universities and schools.

Human Rights: She critically examines the global regression of rights for women and marginalised communities, emphasising the need for education and dialogue to foster a more just society.

Magayana holds a Master of Arts (MA) in Sociology and is currently pursuing her PhD at the UFS. Through her roles as a columnist and public speaker, she consistently challenges patriarchal norms and advocates for creating safer, more equitable spaces for all