Unmarried Mothers Planning for Their Children Factors That Influenced Their Decision as Seen in Ten Cases Known to the New York Foundling Hospital, 1953–55
Abstract
The social phenomenon of unmarried motherhood is not new. It might be said that the problem is as old as the "human race" itself and there seems to be every evidence that it will continue until the end of time. While the problem has remained the same; public attitudes have varied from one historical period to another and from one culture to another. Among certain primitive people and certain contemporary cultures it is accepted as ordinary sexual behavior which has become accepted either through expediency or custom. In more developed forms of society however, it is regarded as a moral and a social problem. It is considered to be contrary to the mores and ethical principles of the family and an infringement upon the welfare of the community as a whole. All higher forms of religion have been most condemning of illegitimate parenthood. Christian tradition and the American culture, as such, have laid the heaviest disapproval on the person of the unmarried mother herself. This rigid attitude toward such women had its effect upon early social work so that the treatment afforded the client was more often punitive than therapeutic.
Subject Area
Social work
Recommended Citation
Keating, Marie, "Unmarried Mothers Planning for Their Children Factors That Influenced Their Decision as Seen in Ten Cases Known to the New York Foundling Hospital, 1953–55" (1956). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI31050576.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI31050576
