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

by Shurlee Swain, Renate Howe

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521474436
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/11/1995
Series:	Studies in Australian History
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.67(d)

Table of Contents

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.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"...Swain and Renate's findings are far-reaching and immediate." Patricia A. Washington, Jrnl of San Diego History

"...thorough account of single motherhood in Australia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.... ...Swain brings a sophisticated understanding of 'lived experience' to her interpretations of the oral histories. She deftly situates interview data within a wealth of original quantitative data specific to Victoria and generates it for the purposes of this study...." Nancy D. Campbell, Journal of Women's History

"This book combines good history with impassioned political advocacy." Pacific Affairs

"...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

Editorial Reviews

"...Swain and Renate's findings are far-reaching and immediate." Patricia A. Washington, Jrnl of San Diego History

"...thorough account of single motherhood in Australia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.... ...Swain brings a sophisticated understanding of ‘lived experience' to her interpretations of the oral histories. She deftly situates interview data within a wealth of original quantitative data specific to Victoria and generates it for the purposes of this study...." Nancy D. Campbell, Journal of Women's History

"This book combines good history with impassioned political advocacy." Pacific Affairs

"...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

From the Publisher