The Unwed Mother in a Protective Setting A History of Saint Mary’s Infant Asylum and Lying-in Hospital in Affiliation With the Catholic Charitable Bureau of Boston 1874–1960
Abstract
Background of Study Illegitimacy is a problem that is nearly as old as the institution of marriage. The social history of the United States had developed for two hundred years before protection was offered to unmarried mothers in a shelter designated for them alone. For years, various methods had been used to try to reduce the number of illegitimate births by harsh punishment for the mother and denial of legal rights to her child. However, the stigma placed on the mother and child is a much older story than two centuries of United States development, but society took little or no cognizance of the underlying causes or of the innocence of the child.
Subject Area
Multicultural Education|American history|Sociology|Social work
Recommended Citation
McDonald, Mary Frances, "The Unwed Mother in a Protective Setting A History of Saint Mary’s Infant Asylum and Lying-in Hospital in Affiliation With the Catholic Charitable Bureau of Boston 1874–1960" (1960). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI31050569.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI31050569
