"Wake up Little Susie": Single pregnancy and race in the pre-Roe v. Wade era, 1945-1965.
Item
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Title
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"Wake up Little Susie": Single pregnancy and race in the pre-Roe v. Wade era, 1945-1965.
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Identifier
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AAI9130374
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identifier
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9130374
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Creator
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Solinger, Regina Ann.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Carol Ruth Berkin
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Date
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1991
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, United States | Women's Studies
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Abstract
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This study explores the various and changing interactions between biological factors involved in conception and the environments in which illegitimate pregnancy occurred, 1945-1965, and argues that responses to single pregnancy in the postwar, pre-Roe v. Wade era demonstrate that the female reproductive capacity has contributed to the subordination of women in variable ways.;In the postwar era, racially specific public policies, professional practices and community attitudes toward single pregnancy emerged and were institutionalized. In this context, public and professional attitudes about who was a mother emerged as racially variable, as well. Women-centered social agencies introduced casework treatment for white "unwed mothers" and, adapting Freudian theory, redefined illegitimacy for whites as a psychological rather than a sexual issue. Consistent with postwar attitudes about single women and about the white family imperative, white unwed mothers became, by definition, unfit mothers, in fact, not mothers at all. The ones who wanted to keep their babies were diagnosed as particularly immature, or more usually, mentally ill.;In sharp contrast, black single pregnancy was defined as the product of uncontrolled, sexual indulgences, the product, in fact, of the absence of psyche. For mid-century commentators concerned about population growth among blacks, about rising welfare costs, or about black challenges to white supremacy, biological determinism was a useful explanation of the reproductive behavior of black women. It was an explanation that justified punitive responses to black single pregnancy.;The variable "value" assigned to illegitimate babies, by race, was a central factor in shaping the experience of the biological mother. This study explores the constraints and opportunities for unwed mothers, black and white, offered by public and community responses to illegitimate babies, by the adoption system and by the very active black market in white illegitimate children in these years.;The study concludes with a consideration of the emergence and public uses of two, racially-specific apocalyptic metaphors describing female sexuality between 1960 and 1965: the population bomb and the sexual revolution--and their relevance to the experiences of unwed mothers, black and white.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
