The Issue of Never-Married Motherhood in Britain, 1920-70

Social History of Medicine

Volumn 10, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 401-418

  Lewis, Jane ^a   Welshman, John ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Illegitimacy; Lone parent; Mother and baby home; Never married mother; Public health; Social work; Unmarried mother; Welfare

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HISTORY; HUMAN; ILLEGITIMACY; MARRIAGE; MOTHER; SOCIAL PROBLEM; UNITED KINGDOM;

GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; ILLEGITIMACY; MARRIAGE; MOTHERS; SOCIAL PROBLEMS;

EID: 0031306451     PISSN: 0951631X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/shm/10.3.401     Document Type: Article

References (89)

1. R. Edwards and S. Duncan, 'Rational Economic Man or Lone Mothers in Context? The Uptake of Paid Work', in E. Silva (ed.) Good Enough Mothering? Feminist Perspectives on Lone Motherhood (New York, 1995), pp. 114-29.
2. J. Fink, 'Condemned or Condoned? Investigating the Problem of Unmarried Motherhood in England, 1945-60' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Essex, 1997). In her most stimulating study, Fink pays close attention to the voluntary organizations who dealt with unmarried mothers and to the practices of the local authorities, and explores literary film sources. However she does not distinguish between public health and social work perspectives.
3. We use this term, but it should be noted that it has not been used in the compilation of official statistics since the passing of the 1987 Family Law Reform Act, which abolished the status of illegitimacy while retaining a distinction between the father of legitimate and illegitimate children.
4. That is, total extra-marital births as a proportion of the total single, widowed, and divorced women of childbearing years.
5. On the sexual behaviour of young people in particular, see M. Schofield, The Sexual Behaviour of Young People (Harmondsworth, 1968), and C. Farrell, My Mother Said: The Way Young People Learned about Sex and Birth Control (London, 1978).
6. On the sexual behaviour of young people in particular, see M. Schofield, The Sexual Behaviour of Young People (Harmondsworth, 1968), and C. Farrell, My Mother Said: The Way Young People Learned about Sex and Birth Control (London, 1978).
7. That is, the total number of extra-marital births as a proportion of total live births.
8. P. Thane, 'Women and the Poor Law in Victorian and Edwardian England', History Workshop 6 (1978), 29-51; A. R. Higginbotham, 'The Unmarried Mother and her Child in Victorian London, 1834-1914' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University, 1985) (Ann Arbor Michigan, University Microfilms, 1985).
9. P. Thane, 'Women and the Poor Law in Victorian and Edwardian England', History Workshop 6 (1978), 29-51; A. R. Higginbotham, 'The Unmarried Mother and her Child in Victorian London, 1834-1914' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University, 1985) (Ann Arbor Michigan, University Microfilms, 1985).
10. S. F. Hartley, 'The Amazing Rise of Illegitimacy in Great Britain', Social Forces 44 (1966), 533-45.
11. C. Ungerson (ed.) Women and Social Policy: A Reader (Basingstoke, 1985), H. Graham, 'Being Poor: Perceptions and Coping Strategies of Lone Mothers', in J. Brannen and G. Wilson (eds.) Give and Take in Families: Studies in Resource Distribution (London, 1987), pp. 56-74; J. Millar, Poverty and the Lone-Parent Family: The Challenge to Social Policy (Aldershot, 1989); M. Hardey and G. Crow (eds.) Lone Parenthood: Coping with Constraints and Making Opportunities (Hemel Hempstead, 1991).
12. C. Ungerson (ed.) Women and Social Policy: A Reader (Basingstoke, 1985), H. Graham, 'Being Poor: Perceptions and Coping Strategies of Lone Mothers', in J. Brannen and G. Wilson (eds.) Give and Take in Families: Studies in Resource Distribution (London, 1987), pp. 56-74; J. Millar, Poverty and the Lone-Parent Family: The Challenge to Social Policy (Aldershot, 1989); M. Hardey and G. Crow (eds.) Lone Parenthood: Coping with Constraints and Making Opportunities (Hemel Hempstead, 1991).
13. C. Ungerson (ed.) Women and Social Policy: A Reader (Basingstoke, 1985), H. Graham, 'Being Poor: Perceptions and Coping Strategies of Lone Mothers', in J. Brannen and G. Wilson (eds.) Give and Take in Families: Studies in Resource Distribution (London, 1987), pp. 56-74; J. Millar, Poverty and the Lone-Parent Family: The Challenge to Social Policy (Aldershot, 1989); M. Hardey and G. Crow (eds.) Lone Parenthood: Coping with Constraints and Making Opportunities (Hemel Hempstead, 1991).
14. C. Ungerson (ed.) Women and Social Policy: A Reader (Basingstoke, 1985), H. Graham, 'Being Poor: Perceptions and Coping Strategies of Lone Mothers', in J. Brannen and G. Wilson (eds.) Give and Take in Families: Studies in Resource Distribution (London, 1987), pp. 56-74; J. Millar, Poverty and the Lone-Parent Family: The Challenge to Social Policy (Aldershot, 1989); M. Hardey and G. Crow (eds.) Lone Parenthood: Coping with Constraints and Making Opportunities (Hemel Hempstead, 1991).
15. R. Solinger, Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe V Wade (New York, 1992); R. Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls: Unmarried Mothers and the Professionalisation of Social Work, 1890-1945 (New Haven, 1993); R. Kunzel, 'Pulp Fictions and Problem Girls: Reading and Rewriting Single Pregnancy in the Post-war United States', American Historical Review 100 (1995), 1465-87; M. J. Morton, And Sin No More: Social Policy and Unwed Mothers in Cleveland, 1855-1910 (Cleveland, 1993).
16. R. Solinger, Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe V Wade (New York, 1992); R. Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls: Unmarried Mothers and the Professionalisation of Social Work, 1890-1945 (New Haven, 1993); R. Kunzel, 'Pulp Fictions and Problem Girls: Reading and Rewriting Single Pregnancy in the Post-war United States', American Historical Review 100 (1995), 1465-87; M. J. Morton, And Sin No More: Social Policy and Unwed Mothers in Cleveland, 1855-1910 (Cleveland, 1993).
17. R. Solinger, Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe V Wade (New York, 1992); R. Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls: Unmarried Mothers and the Professionalisation of Social Work, 1890-1945 (New Haven, 1993); R. Kunzel, 'Pulp Fictions and Problem Girls: Reading and Rewriting Single Pregnancy in the Post-war United States', American Historical Review 100 (1995), 1465-87; M. J. Morton, And Sin No More: Social Policy and Unwed Mothers in Cleveland, 1855-1910 (Cleveland, 1993).
18. R. Solinger, Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe V Wade (New York, 1992); R. Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls: Unmarried Mothers and the Professionalisation of Social Work, 1890-1945 (New Haven, 1993); R. Kunzel, 'Pulp Fictions and Problem Girls: Reading and Rewriting Single Pregnancy in the Post-war United States', American Historical Review 100 (1995), 1465-87; M. J. Morton, And Sin No More: Social Policy and Unwed Mothers in Cleveland, 1855-1910 (Cleveland, 1993).
19. Higginbotham, 'Unmarried Mother and her Child'; M. A. Crowther, The Workhouse System, 1834-1929: The History of an English Social Institution (London, 1981); J. Lewis, Women in Britain since 1945: Women, Family, Work and the State in the Post-war Years (Oxford, 1992) M. Spensky, 'Producers of Legitimacy: Homes for Unmarried Mothers in the 1950s', in C. Smart (ed.) Regulating Womanhood: Historical Essays on Marriage, Motherhood and Sexuality (London, 1992), pp. 100-18; H. Jones, Health and Society in Twentieth Century Britain (London, 1994), pp. 96-7, 130-1.
20. Higginbotham, 'Unmarried Mother and her Child'; M. A. Crowther, The Workhouse System, 1834-1929: The History of an English Social Institution (London, 1981); J. Lewis, Women in Britain since 1945: Women, Family, Work and the State in the Post-war Years (Oxford, 1992) M. Spensky, 'Producers of Legitimacy: Homes for Unmarried Mothers in the 1950s', in C. Smart (ed.) Regulating Womanhood: Historical Essays on Marriage, Motherhood and Sexuality (London, 1992), pp. 100-18; H. Jones, Health and Society in Twentieth Century Britain (London, 1994), pp. 96-7, 130-1.
21. Higginbotham, 'Unmarried Mother and her Child'; M. A. Crowther, The Workhouse System, 1834-1929: The History of an English Social Institution (London, 1981); J. Lewis, Women in Britain since 1945: Women, Family, Work and the State in the Post-war Years (Oxford, 1992) M. Spensky, 'Producers of Legitimacy: Homes for Unmarried Mothers in the 1950s', in C. Smart (ed.) Regulating Womanhood: Historical Essays on Marriage, Motherhood and Sexuality (London, 1992), pp. 100-18; H. Jones, Health and Society in Twentieth Century Britain (London, 1994), pp. 96-7, 130-1.
22. Higginbotham, 'Unmarried Mother and her Child'; M. A. Crowther, The Workhouse System, 1834-1929: The History of an English Social Institution (London, 1981); J. Lewis, Women in Britain since 1945: Women, Family, Work and the State in the Post-war Years (Oxford, 1992) M. Spensky, 'Producers of Legitimacy: Homes for Unmarried Mothers in the 1950s', in C. Smart (ed.) Regulating Womanhood: Historical Essays on Marriage, Motherhood and Sexuality (London, 1992), pp. 100-18; H. Jones, Health and Society in Twentieth Century Britain (London, 1994), pp. 96-7, 130-1.
23. Higginbotham, 'Unmarried Mother and her Child'; M. A. Crowther, The Workhouse System, 1834-1929: The History of an English Social Institution (London, 1981); J. Lewis, Women in Britain since 1945: Women, Family, Work and the State in the Post-war Years (Oxford, 1992) M. Spensky, 'Producers of Legitimacy: Homes for Unmarried Mothers in the 1950s', in C. Smart (ed.) Regulating Womanhood: Historical Essays on Marriage, Motherhood and Sexuality (London, 1992), pp. 100-18; H. Jones, Health and Society in Twentieth Century Britain (London, 1994), pp. 96-7, 130-1.
24. PP 1974, XVI (Cmnd. 5629), Report of the Committee on One-Parent Families.
25. Thane, 'Women and the Poor Law'.
26. PP 1896, X, 225, Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Infant Life Protection Bill and Safety of Nurse Children Bill (343), Q. 2735.
27. PP 1918, XI (Cd. 9169), Annual Report of the Medical Officer to the Local Government Board, 1917-18, pp. xxix-xxxii.
28. E. S. Pankhurst, The Home Front: A Mirror to Life in England During the First World War (London, 1932, Cresset edn., 1987), p. 175.
29. R. Cattell, The Fight for Our National Intelligence (London, 1937). On the concern about mental deficiency in the period see G. R. Searle, 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science 36 (1979), 159-69.
30. R. Cattell, The Fight for Our National Intelligence (London, 1937). On the concern about mental deficiency in the period see G. R. Searle, 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science 36 (1979), 159-69.
31. National Vigilance Association Archive, Fawcett Library, Guildhall University, London, box 115.
32. S. Ferguson and H. Fitzgerald, Studies in the Social Services: History of the Second World War: United Kingdom Civil Series (London, 1954).
33. Leicestershire Record Office (hereafter LRO): Leicester Health Committee, Report of the MOH, 1922 (Leicester, 1923), p. 3.
34. Ministry of Health, Circular 2866, The Care of Illegitimate Children, November 1943.
35. LRO: Minutes of the Maternity and Child Welfare Sub-committee, 3 February 1943, p. 648, and 5 January 1944, p. 65; LRO: Leicester Health Committee, Report of the MOH, 1944 (Leicester, 1945), p. 63.
36. Ferguson and Fitzgerald, Studies in the Social Services, p. 128.
37. Ibid., p. 138.
38. Ibid., pp. 129-38.
39. Ministry of Health, On the State of the Public Health, 1951 (London, 1952), p. 118.
40. E. Rathbone, Family Allowances: A New Edition of the Disinherited Family (London, 1924, new edn., 1949); B. S. Rowntree and G. R. Lavers, English Life and Leisure: A Social Study (London, 1951), pp. 203-7.
41. E. Rathbone, Family Allowances: A New Edition of the Disinherited Family (London, 1924, new edn., 1949); B. S. Rowntree and G. R. Lavers, English Life and Leisure: A Social Study (London, 1951), pp. 203-7.
42. Political and Economic Planning, 'The Unmarried Mother', Planning 255 (1946), 1-12.
43. M. Hopkirk, Nobody Wanted Sam: The Story of the Unwelcomed Child, 1530-1948 (London, 1949).
44. Spensky, 'Producers of Legitimacy', pp. 116-17. She argues that lone mothers continued to be treated as deviant after the war. Certainly, they were pathologized as the next section of the paper shows. But there was a substantial change in the way in which they were conceptualized as a social problem.
45. J. Lewis, The Voluntary Sector, the State and Social Work in Britain: The Charity Organisation Society/Family Welfare Association since 1869 (Aldershot, 1995), p. 101.
46. L. R. Young, 'Personality Patterns in Unmarried Mothers', reprinted R. W. Roberts (ed.) The Unwed Mother (Westport, 1966), pp. 81-94. See also her The Unmarried Mother's Decision about her Baby (New York, 1947) and Out of Wedlock: A study of the Unmarried Mother and her Child (New York, 1954).
47. L. R. Young, 'Personality Patterns in Unmarried Mothers', reprinted R. W. Roberts (ed.) The Unwed Mother (Westport, 1966), pp. 81-94. See also her The Unmarried Mother's Decision about her Baby (New York, 1947) and Out of Wedlock: A study of the Unmarried Mother and her Child (New York, 1954).
48. L. R. Young, 'Personality Patterns in Unmarried Mothers', reprinted R. W. Roberts (ed.) The Unwed Mother (Westport, 1966), pp. 81-94. See also her The Unmarried Mother's Decision about her Baby (New York, 1947) and Out of Wedlock: A study of the Unmarried Mother and her Child (New York, 1954).
49. J. Bowlby, Maternal Care Mental Health (Geneva, 1951), pp. 93-100, 157-8.
50. A. C. Stevenson, Recent Advances in Social Medicine (London, 1950), pp. 123-34.
51. J. Macnicol, 'In Pursuit of the Underclass', Journal of Social Policy 16 (1987), 293-318; J. Welshman, 'In Search of the "Problem Family": Public Health and Social Work in England and Wales, 1940-70', Social History of Medicine 9 (1996), 448-65.
52. J. Macnicol, 'In Pursuit of the Underclass', Journal of Social Policy 16 (1987), 293-318; J. Welshman, 'In Search of the "Problem Family": Public Health and Social Work in England and Wales, 1940-70', Social History of Medicine 9 (1996), 448-65.
53. Cited in Spensky, 'Producers of Legitimacy', p. 108.
54. C. F. Brockington, The Health of the Community: Principles of Public Health for Practitioners and Students (London, 1954), pp. 140-3, 205-6.
55. E. E. Irvine, 'Research into Problem Families: Theoretical Questions Arising from Dr Blacker's Investigations', British Journal of Psychiatric Social Work 5 (1954), 24-33.
56. D. Gough, 'Work with Unmarried Mothers', Almoner 13 (1961), 490-8.
57. J. Pochin, Without a Wedding Ring: Casework with Unmarried Parents (London, 1969), p. 6.
58. E. K. Macdonald, 'Follow-Up of Illegitimate Children', Medical Officer XCVI (1956), 361-5.
59. Young, Out of Wedlock, p. 217.
60. Macdonald, 'Follow-Up of Illegitimate Children', pp. 362-3.
61. B. Thompson, 'Social Study of Illegitimate Maternities', British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine 10 (1956), 75-87.
62. C. Greenland, 'Unmarried Parenthood: Ecological Aspects', Lancet 19 January 1957, 148-51.
63. C. Greenland, 'Unmarried Parenthood: I - Unmarried Mothers', Medical Officer XCIX (1958),
64. C. Greenland, 'Unmarried Parenthood: II - Putative Fathers', Medical Officer XCIX (1958), 281-6.
65. M. Yelloly, Social Work Theory and Psychoanalysis (New York, 1980).
66. J. Lewis, What Price Community Medicine? The Philosophy, Politics and Practice of Public Health Since 1919 (Brighton, 1986).
67. 50 PP 1967-8, XXXII (Cmnd. 3703), Report of the Committee on Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Services, pp. 62-3, 214, paras. 211, 694.
68. Ministry of Health and Department of Health for Scotland, Report of the Working Party on Social Workers in the Local Authority Health and Welfare Services (London, 1959), pp. 42-5, 115-17, paras. 189-98, 419-24.
69. V. Wimperis, The Unmarried Mother and her Child (London, 1960), p. 73.
70. Ibid., p. 252.
71. M. P. Hall, The Social Services of Modern England (London, 1952, fourth edn., 1959), p. 181.
72. A. Forder, Penelope Hall's Social Services of Modern England (London, 1969, sixth edn.).
73. P. M. Hall and I. V. Howes, The Church in Social Work: A Study of Moral Welfare Work Undertaken by the Church of England (London, 1965).
74. J. Nicholson, Mother and Baby Homes: A Survey of Homes for Unmarried Mothers (London, 1968), pp. 9-19.
75. PP 1945-6, X (Cmd. 6922), Report of the Care of Children Committee, p. 72, para. 230.
76. Nicholson, Mother and Baby Homes, pp. 49-50.
77. J. Weeks, Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality Since 1800 (London, 1981, second edn. 1989), p. 249.
78. M. Wynn, Fatherless Families (London, 1968).
79. D. Marsden, Mothers Alone: Poverty and the Fatherless Family (London, 1969), pp. 4, 86-7.
80. J. Cheetham, Unwanted Pregnancy and Counselling (London, 1977).
81. PP 1974, XVI (Cmnd. 5629), Report of the Committee on One-Parent Families, p. 426, para. 8.3.
82. Ibid., para. 4.224.
83. J. Hills, Income and Wealth (York, 1995), vol. II.
84. J. Haskey, 'Lone Parenthood and Demographic Change', in M. Hardy and G. Crow (eds.) Lone Parenthood: Coping with Constraints and Making Opportunities (Hemel Hempstead, 1991), pp. 19-46.
85. J. Teichman, The Meaning of Illegitimacy (Cambridge, 1978).
86. See E. M. Eppel and M. Eppel, Adolescents and Morality (London, 1966).
87. G. M. Carstairs, This Island Now (London, 1962). It should, however, be noted that access to contraception was closed to unmarried women until it became available on the National Health Service in 1967 and thereafter access remained difficult in many areas until the early 1970s.
88. Cheetham, Unwanted Pregnancy and Counselling.
89. J. A. T. Robinson, Honest to God (London, 1963).