Unmarried Motherhood in Twentieth‐Century England

Abstract

This article explores the experiences of unmarried mothers who kept and tried to raise their children between World War One and the end of the twentieth century. It argues that there has not been a simple progression from their experiencing social stigma and ostracism to more enlightened attitudes since the 1970s. Rather there is a great deal that has hitherto been unknown about what the evidence suggests were very diverse experiences and attitudes throughout the period. A major change since the 1970s has been from pervasive secrecy about unmarried motherhood, cohabitation, adultery and similar ‘irregular’ practices, especially among the middle classes, to greater openness. The article uses a variety of sources, including the records of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child (founded in 1918, now One Parent Families), oral histories, contemporary interviews and official and unofficial investigations.

Notes

[1] The research has been funded by ESRC grant number RES‐000‐23‐0545 and has been carried out by Tanya Evans as Research Fellow, and myself as Principal Investigator.

[2] See also Pat Thane (2001) What Difference did the Vote Make?, in Amanda Vickery (Ed.) Women, Privilege and Power: British politics, 1750 to the present (Stanford: Stanford University Press), pp. 253–288.

[3] The history of voluntary organizations in twentieth‐century Britain is under‐researched and their role sometimes underestimated. See Frank K. Prochaska (2006) Christianity and Social Service in Modern Britain: the disinherited spirit (Oxford: Oxford University Press). But see Geoffrey Finlayson (1994) Citizen, State and Social Welfare in Britain, 1830–1990 (Oxford: Clarendon Press); Kate Bradley (2009) Poverty, Philanthropy and the State: charities and the working classes in London, 1918–1979 (Manchester: Manchester University Press); and James McKay, Matthew Hilton & Nicholas Crowson (Eds) (2009) Non‐Governmental Organizations and Politics in Contemporary Britain (London: Palgrave).

[4] Peter Laslett (1978) Family Life and Illicit Love in Earlier Generations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press); Tanya Evans (2005) ‘Unfortunate Objects’: lone mothers in eighteenth century London (Basingstoke: Palgrave); John Gillis (1988) For Better for Worse: British marriages, 1600 to the present (Oxford: Oxford University Press); Alyssa Levene, Sam Williams & Thomas Nutt (Eds) (2005) Illegitimacy in Britain, 1700–1900 (Basingstoke: Palgrave).

[5] Charles Booth (1902) Life and Labour of the People in London: religious influences, vol. 1 (London: Macmillan), p. 55; Elizabeth Roberts (1984) A Woman’s Place: an oral history of working‐class women, 1890–1940 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell), pp. 72–80; Virginia Wimperis (1960) The Unmarried Mother and Her Child (London: Allen & Unwin).

[6] Ellen Ross (1993) Love and Toil: motherhood in outcast London, 1970–1918 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 63–64.

[7] Lettice Fisher (1946) Twenty‐One Years and After, 1918–46 (London: National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child). The Chair of the National Council throughout this time.

[8] Booth, London, pp. 55–56.

[9] E.g. Ross, Love and Toil, p. 64.

[10] Royal Commission on Divorce and Matrimonial Causes (1912–13) Report. Parliamentary Papers, vols 18–21. Cd. 6478‐81 (London: HMSO); James Hammerton (1992) Cruelty and Companionship: conflict in nineteenth century married life (London: Routledge).

[11] Parliamentary Papers, vol. XX1, Cd 7756 (1914–16) (London: HMSO), pp. 4–5. Arthur Marwick (1967) The Deluge: British society and the First World War (Harmondsworth: Penguin), p. 43.

[12] Joanne Klein (2005) Irregular Marriages: unorthodox working class domestic life in Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester, 1900–1939, Journal of Family History, 2, pp. 210–229.

[13] Helen Glew (2009) Women Workers in the Post Office, 1914–1939 (Ph.D. thesis, Institute of Historical Research, University of London).

[14] Ginger Frost ‘Revolting to Humanity’: oversights, limitations and complications of the English Legitimacy Act, 1926 (in this issue).

[15] Jenny Keating (2005) Chosen Children? The Legalization of Adoption in England and its Aftermath, 1918–1939 (D.Phil. thesis, University of Sussex); Jenny Keating (2008) A Child for Keeps: the history of adoption in England, 1918–1945 (London: Palgrave).

[16] Wimperis, Unmarried Mother; Roberts, Woman’s Place, pp. 72–80.

[17] Ross, Love and Toil, p. 134.

[18] Interview with Natasha Spender by Harriet Lane, The Observer, 9 May 2004.

[19] Sue Bruley (1991) Women in Britain since 1900 (London: Macmillan), pp. 77–78.

[20] Doreen Bates, Mass Observation Diary, D 5245. Thank you to the Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex for permission to quote from this diary.

[21] Department of Health and Social Security (1974) Report of the Committee on One‐Parent Families, vols I and II, Cmnd 5629, the Finer Report (London: HMSO).

[22] Sheila M. Ferguson & Hilde Fitzgerald (1954) History of the Second World War: studies in the social services (London: HMSO and Longmans), p. 138, n. 2.

[23] Hansard, Official Report, House of Commons Debates, 7 May 1920, vol. 128, col. 2396.

[24] Anthony West (1984) H. G. Wells: aspects of life (New York: Random House). Anthony West (reissued 1984) Heritage (London: Coronet).

[25] National Council, Annual Report, 1934, Women’s Library, 5/OPF/10/1a, p. 23.

[26] A. James Hammerton & Alistair Thomson (2005) Ten Pound Poms: Australia’s invisible migrants (Manchester: Manchester University Press).

[27] NCUMC Committee of Management Minutes (hereafter CMM), 26 Sept. 1962, 5/OPF/2/1/1/1i.

[28] Frost ‘Legitimacy Act’. Stephen Cretney (2003) Family Law in the Twentieth Century: a history (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 548–551.

[29] Keating, Child for Keeps; Cretney, Family Law, pp. 596–615.

[30] Ferguson & Fitzgerald, History of the Second World War, quoting Home Office survey, pp. 139–140.

[31] Fisher, Twenty‐One Years, p. 19.

[32] Ferguson & Fitzgerald, History of the Second World War, p. 93.

[33] Richard Titmuss (1950) History of the Second World War: problems of social policy (London: HMSO and Longmans), p. 211, n. 2.

[34] Ferguson & Fitzgerald, pp. 171–175. Fisher, Twenty‐One Years, p. 19.

[35] Ibid., p. 4.

[36] Ibid., pp. 18–19.

[37] Ferguson & Fitzgerald, History of the Second World War, pp. 176–203.

[38] Ferguson and Fitzgerald, History of the Second World War, p. 134.

[39] Fisher, Twenty‐One Years, p. 19.

[40] NC, Annual Report, 1943–44.

[41] NC, Annual Reports, 1946–47, 1947–48 and CMM, 12 November 1946. Most meetings contain some discussion of this issue between the years 1946 and 1950, 5/OPF/2/1/1/1g. See also TNA/FO/371/70845, 1948.

[42] Social Insurance and Allied Services, Cmd 6404 (1942) (London: HMSO), paras 347–348.

[43] Kathleen Kiernan, Hilary Land & Jane Lewis (1998) Lone Motherhood in Twentieth Century Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 155–170; Dennis Marsden (1969)Mothers Alone (Harmondsworth: Penguin), ch. 12. His interviews are available as PDF documents at Dennis Marsden, Mothers Alone: poverty and the fatherless family, 1955–1966 [computer file]. Colchester: UK Data Archive [distributor], February 2005. SN: 5072. Dennis Marsden and the UK Data Archive bear no responsibility for the further analysis and interpretation of these interviews. See Interviews, 105, 110, 79, 43, 11, 57, 117, 113, 112, 77.

[44] Ministry of National Insurance (1950) Report of the National Assistance Board for the Year Ended December 1949. Cmd 8030 (London: HMSO), p. 21.

[45] Cyril Greenland (1958) The Medical Officer, 9, 16 May.

[46] Kiernan et al. Lone Motherhood, pp. 160–161.

[47] John Bowlby (1951) Maternal Care and Mental Health (Geneva: World Health Organization).

[48] NC, Annual Report, 1952.

[49] Cretney, Family Law, p. 609, n. 83.

[50] Ibid., p. 624, n. 195.

[51] General Register Office, Registrar General’s Statistical Review (Annual) 1957–1973 (London: HMSO); Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys (OPCS), Annual Marriage and Divorce Statistics 1974–1979 (London: HMSO).

[52] E.g. NC were pioneers of fund‐raising appeals on BBC radio and made their first television appeal in 1953. They had a close relationship in the 1950s with the ‘agony aunt’ of Woman’s Own, Evelyn Home, who promoted their advice and referred readers for their assistance.

[53] Brian Abel‐Smith & Peter Townsend (1965) The Poor and the Poorest (London: George Bell & Sons).

[54] Tanya Evans (2009) Stopping the Poor Getting Poorer: the establishment and development of poverty NGOs, in McKay et al., Non‐Governmental Organisations.

[55] Hera Cook (2004) The Long Sexual Revolution: English women, sex and contraception, 1800–1975 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

[56] Among other work, Oliver R. McGregor, Louis Blom‐Cooper & Colin Gibson (1970) Separated Spouses: a study of the matrimonial jurisdiction of magistrates’ courts (London: Duckworth).

[57] Department of Health and Social Security (1974) Report of the Committee on One‐Parent Families, vols I and II, the Finer Report. Cmnd. 5629. (London: HMSO).

[58] Office of National Statistics (1990) Birth Statistics, Series FM1, Table 5.2.

[59] Kiernan et al., Lone Motherhood, p. 139.

[60] Cretney, Family Law, pp. 563–565.

[61] Kiernan et al., Lone Motherhood, p. 190.

[62] Witness Seminar: ‘The Child Support Act, 1991: a case study’. University of Oxford, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, 16 November 2007.

[63] Kiernan et al., Lone Motherhood, pp. 200–209.

[64] Ibid.

[65] Ibid.

[66] Rodney Lowe (2005) The Welfare State in Britain since 1945 (3rd ed.). London: Palgrave), p. 403.