Single Mothers and their Children: Disposal, Punishment and Survival in Australia

ISBN-13: 9780521474436 / Angielski / Twarda / 1996 / 288 str.

Shurlee Swain (University of Melbourne); Victoria) Renate Howe (Deakin University

Opis

This is a powerful and moving history of single motherhood in Australia. It tells the story of these women and their children and the lives they constructed. The book covers the period from the 1850s, when abandonment and infanticide were not uncommon, to 1975, when the legal status of illegitimacy was abolished. While tracing profound changes over this period, the authors find much continuity. The book covers issues of baby farming, infanticide, abortion, sex education, birth control, adoption and marriage, in effect becoming a history of sexual practice in Australia.

Recenzje

"...a useful, and, at times, powerful and moving contribution to our knowledge of the history of sexuality, motherhood and family life." Elizabeth Yeoman, Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering

Spis treści

1. Introduction: To have an unlicensed child; 2. The mothers: a perfectly nice girl - an ordinary girl, perhaps your own daughter; 3. Breaking the news: what are you going to do about it?; 4. Pregnancy and confinement: medicos, midwives and morals; 5. Death: very army of murderesses within our midst; 6. Separation: now put this thing that has happened to you away, forget about it, get on with the rest of your life; 7. Surviving: you must maintain your own; 8. Illegitimacy: to punish the innocent child; 9. Empowerment and resistance: speaking out publicly.