We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
"Unwed Mother": Sex, Stigma, and Spoiled Identity.
- Authors
ANDREWS, VALERIE J.
- Abstract
This paper focuses on the postwar "unwed mother," the discursive construction of her identity in the twentieth century, and the resulting policies and practices that led to the loss of her (usually) firstborn infant to adoption in the postwar adoption mandate. The stigma and spoiled identity attached to being an "unwed mother" had a negative impact on the lives of these mostly teenaged young women and girls, the majority for their entire lives. This paper uncovers the illegal, unethical, and human rights abuses perpetrated against these "gender traitors," sexual agents who became pregnant out-ofwedlock, disrupting normative gender roles during a period in which women were expected to create nuclear families within heterosexual marriage.
- Subjects
SINGLE mothers; NUCLEAR families; PREGNANT women; HUMAN rights violations; GENDER; SOCIAL stigma; YOUNG women
- Publication
Adoption & Culture, 2020, Vol 8, Issue 2, p133
- ISSN
1944-4990
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1353/ado.2020.0000