Between 1960 and 1975 more than 38,000 mothers lost babies to adoption in New South Wales, Australia, a pattern which was replicated in other Western societies. Various theories were proposed for women's exnuptial pregnancies which resulted in their babies being taken for adoption, culminating in the discursive construction of the unmarried mother as 'mad, bad, or stupid'. Until the 1990s, the voices of women whose babies had been taken for adoption had been silenced by the social order which adoption practices served. It is through their voices, and through the voices of other women who remember the era of the adoption bounty, that another meaning for the loss of a baby to adoption, through the process of semanalysis, has been sought. This thesis is informed primarily by the writings of the French postmodern feminist, Julia Kristeva. In addition the works of the post-structuralist philosopher, Michel Foucault, the German socialist feminist, Frigga Haug, and the American feminist psychologist, Michelle Fine are used as an heuristic lens through which to examine the phenomenon of losing a baby to adoption. A qualitative research methodology, incorporating feminist praxis and feminist multiple methods, has been employed. The framework for this thesis is that of a double helix which depicts two orders, the symbolic and the semiotic, which intertwine and intersect. The symbolic order is analogous to the public social order which through its hegemonic discourses constructed the unmarried mother and adoption. The semiotic order refers to the personal space where the voices of women are heard through counterdiscourses. At the scission of the two helical strands sits the thetic phase, a point of rupture by the semiotic into the symbolic where the voices of mothers are expressed through their poetry and art. Through the process of semanalysis, the tensions which simultaneously resist and challenge the semiotic and symbolic orders are exposed: tensions between discourse, discipline and docility; power and knowledge; sexuality and silence; power of / as sexuality; power and resistance; and resistance and / as silence. Furthermore, I examine the manifestations of mothers' resistance to silence, and their resistance as activism. My concluding analysis involves the notion of abjection as it binds together the threads of the loss of a baby to adoption: abjection as entrapment; abjection as infertility; and abjection as / in reunion. For mothers who lost babies to adoption, their loss finds meaning in the ultimate horror: it is abjection.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-320).

Between 1960 and 1975 more than 38,000 mothers lost babies to adoption in New South Wales, Australia, a pattern which was replicated in other Western societies. Various theories were proposed for women's exnuptial pregnancies which resulted in their babies being taken for adoption, culminating in the discursive construction of the unmarried mother as 'mad, bad, or stupid'. Until the 1990s, the voices of women whose babies had been taken for adoption had been silenced by the social order which adoption practices served. It is through their voices, and through the voices of other women who remember the era of the adoption bounty, that another meaning for the loss of a baby to adoption, through the process of semanalysis, has been sought. This thesis is informed primarily by the writings of the French postmodern feminist, Julia Kristeva. In addition the works of the post-structuralist philosopher, Michel Foucault, the German socialist feminist, Frigga Haug, and the American feminist psychologist, Michelle Fine are used as an heuristic lens through which to examine the phenomenon of losing a baby to adoption. A qualitative research methodology, incorporating feminist praxis and feminist multiple methods, has been employed. The framework for this thesis is that of a double helix which depicts two orders, the symbolic and the semiotic, which intertwine and intersect. The symbolic order is analogous to the public social order which through its hegemonic discourses constructed the unmarried mother and adoption. The semiotic order refers to the personal space where the voices of women are heard through counterdiscourses. At the scission of the two helical strands sits the thetic phase, a point of rupture by the semiotic into the symbolic where the voices of mothers are expressed through their poetry and art. Through the process of semanalysis, the tensions which simultaneously resist and challenge the semiotic and symbolic orders are exposed: tensions between discourse, discipline and docility; power and knowledge; sexuality and silence; power of / as sexuality; power and resistance; and resistance and / as silence. Furthermore, I examine the manifestations of mothers' resistance to silence, and their resistance as activism. My concluding analysis involves the notion of abjection as it binds together the threads of the loss of a baby to adoption: abjection as entrapment; abjection as infertility; and abjection as / in reunion. For mothers who lost babies to adoption, their loss finds meaning in the ultimate horror: it is abjection.

Thesis--Lund. / Summary in English. Bibliography: p. 231-237.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

"The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not there were significant differences in data collected by a schedule of selected items applied to the case records of thirty unmarried mothers born in Spanish American countries and thirty unmarried mothers born in the United States. All sixty mothers who were pregnant out-of-wedlock are former recipients of services offered by Catholic Welfare Bureau, Incorporated, Miami, Florida between May, 1951 and May, 1960"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "June, 1961." / "Submitted to the Graduate School of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work." / Advisor: John T. Greene, Professor Directing Study. / Includes bibliographical references (leaaves 63-64).

Not available / text

The study is an attempt to measure psychopathic tendencies in the girl who becomes pregnant out of wedlock compared with the average non-pregnant college co-ed. This characteristic, when evidenced in a subject's personality, may be reflected in a High T score on the Pd scale of the 1MPI.

A RESEARCH REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES, SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG, IN THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE FIELD OF DEMOGRAPHY AND POPULATION STUDIES 17 September 2015 / Context: Generally, marriage has been early and almost universal phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa, and this can be seen as an important factor in determining fertility. However, fertility among never-married women is no longer negligible. Non-marital childbearing has increased, as women spend much of their reproductive lives unmarried, while remaining sexually active. Although a number of studies have examined non-marital childbearing, the exploration has been largely on teenagers and adolescent youths. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors predisposing never-married women aged 25−49 to have children. Methodology: This study was a secondary data analysis of the 2006-07 Namibian Demographic and Health Survey data. The study population was never-married women, aged 25−49, with a total weighted sample of 2,121. The dependent variable was never-married fertility, categorised into women who have had no birth and those who have had at least one birth. Age specific fertility rates were calculated using the TFR2 module. Bivariate and multivariate binomial logistic techniques were used to examine the association between independent variables of interest and never-married women’s childbearing experience. Results: The study showed that 79% of never-married women, aged 25−49, had at least one child. Respondents from poor households, less educated respondents, rural dwellers and women from the Herero ethno-linguistic group, were more likely to be never-married mothers. The odds of being a never-married mother increased with age. The results further showed that the likelihood for being a never-married mother was higher among those women who reported ever having used contraception. Furthermore, the results showed that delaying age at sexual debut decreases the probability of being a never-married mother. Conclusion: Childbearing among never-married women is common in Namibia, and with increasing age, the risk of having children outside of marriage increases. The consequences of never-married women’s childbearing should be studied, with a focus on the factors identified to influence their childbearing. Furthermore, policies and programmes addressing never-married women’s fertility should reflect the factors associated with never-married women’s fertility in a context where marriage levels are decreasing and fertility is happening outside of marriage.

This thesis makes a significant contribution to the existing knowledge on 'unmarried mothers'. Much of the literature on 'unmarried mothers' has been written by white, male, middle-class professionals who assume that unwed mothers are happy to place their babies for adoption so that they can be free to pursue other interests, meet other men and make a new life. However, after interviewing many of the mothers who gave up their babies in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s in Australia, I found this was not the case. Many of the mothers had wanted to keep their babies but were forced to relinquish them by their families and the wider society who seemed more intent on upholding nuclear family values than making available the resources needed to keep natural mothers and their babies together. My argument throughout this thesis is that given a choice - a viable economic and socially supported choice - many of the unmarried mothers, typified by those whom I interviewed, would not have parted with their babies. Most mothers interviewed, and presumably many of those in the community at large, have experienced much pain and grief as a result of the separation - a grief which is profound and lasts forever. Using Marxist feminist theories of the state and post-structural theories, my thesis highlights the perceptions and memories of birthmothers about the birthing experience and adoption as experience, process and life consequence. I also argue that the removal of white, working-class babies from their mothers compares in some small way with the removal of the indigenous 'stolen children' in the same period. The removal of Aboriginal children from their homes and cultures has been referred to by some scholars and activists as a form of cultural genocide. While the removal of babies from white, working-class, unwed mothers was different in that it had few racial implications, I argue that the system in place at the time was patriarchal and class-based and as such left the young, unwed women with no options but adoption. The thesis makes a very important and socially significant contribution to our understanding of unmarried mothers in that it presents a largely unwritten history of women. Rich in the voices of unmarried mothers, there are important conceptual, empirical and practical policy implications flowing from the research findings.